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LIGHT AND PEACE 



INSTRUCTIONS FOR DEVOUT SOULS 

TO DISPEL THEIR DOUBTS AND 
ALLAY THEIR FEARS. 



BY 



^V'vWC- ^'^U.u..'£i^j- 



R. P. QUADRUPANI, Barnabite, 



Translated from the French. 



With an Introduction by 

THE MOST REV. P. J. RYAN, D.D., 

Archbishop of Philadelphia, Pa. 



Fifth Edition, 



ST. I,OUIS, MO. 1907. 

Published by B. HERDER, 

17 South Broadway. 






NiHii. Obstat. 
Sti LuDpvici, die 11. Junii, 1S04. 

F. G. HOI.WKCK, 

Censor Librorum, 



Imprimatur. 
Sti Ludovici, die 11. Junii, 1904. 

JOANNES J. GLKNNON, 

Archiepiscopns, Sti Ludovici. 



Copyright 1898, by 
JOSEPH GUMMERSBACH. 



Eecktold Printing and Book Mfg. Co., St. Louis, Mo. 



TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



ITIHESE Instructions for Pious Souls ^ now 
^ published in English under the title Light 
and PeacCy were written in 1795 by the illus- 
trious and saintly Barnabite, Padre Quadru- 
pani. They contain a summary of spiritual 
guidance for earnest Christians in the ordinary 
duties of life in the world. The author had 
formed his own spirituality on the model pre- 
sented by the life and teaching of St. Francis 
de Sales, and in this little book he reflects the 
wisdom, prudence and sweetness of that 
''gentleman Saint." 

The work has passed through uncounted 
editions in its original Italian, and through a 
large number of editions in both the French 
and the German translations. An English 
translation was published many years ago, but 
besides its present rarity, its many imperfec- 
tions warrant the belief that a new rendition 
will not be unwelcome. The translator has, 
moreover, been encouraged by the persuasion 
that the maxims of Father Quadrupani are 

(iii) 



iv Translators Preface. 

specially adapted to the American character. 
Unlike many foreign religious works, whose 
spirituality often fails to touch the Anglo- 
Saxon temperament, this author's teaching 
is decidedly practical and practicable, and 
appeals in every way to the common sense 
and fits in with the busy, matter-of-fact life 
of the average American Catholic. 

The present translation has been made from 
the twentieth French edition and has been 
collated with the thirty-second edition of the 
original Italian published at Naples in 1818. 
The many recommendations from the Episco- 
pacy of France prefixed to the French transla- 
tion are here omitted, as the Introduction by 
the Most Reverend Archbishop of Philadelphia 
is abundant testimony to the doctrinal solidity 
of the work. 

I. M. O'R. 

OVKRBROOK, Pa, 



INTRODUCTION. 

&OD'S attributes being infinite and our in- 
tellects limited and also darkened by the 
fall, we see these attributes only in part and 
''as afar off and through a glass.'' In con- 
templating His awful sanctity, we are over- 
whelmed with fear and forget His ineffable 
mercy. Our views are also greatly influenced 
by our natural temperaments, whether joy- 
ous or sad, and change with our environments 
and moods. 

As the blue firmament is ever the same, so 
is the great God Himself^' 'the King of Ages 
immortal and invisible, without change or 
shadow of vicissitude." But as the clouds 
that hang as veils of the sanctuary are mov- 
able and variegated, now dark and gloomy 
and again brilliant in silver or gold, now 
opening into vistas of the firmament above 
and again closing in darkness, except when 
arrows of light pierce them and show their 
outlines, so are we variable and inconstant 
and need spiritual direction adapted to our 
peculiar wants. The naturally joyous, hope- 

(V) 



vi Introduction. 

ful and sometimes presumptuous, need that 
wholesome fear of the Lord which is *'the 
beginning of wisdom. ' ' The constitutionally 
severe, scrupulous and almost despairing, 
need to remember God's tender paternal 
character and to learn that ''His mercies are 
above all His works." To such souls this 
little book must prove invaluable. Its theology- 
is sound, as the various episcopal approba- 
tions testify. Hence its statements can be 
entirely trusted. The fact that it has passed 
through twenty editions in French is sufficient 
evidence of its appreciation in that country. 
May it continue its holy mission of light and 
consolation and joy in this country and act 
like the angelic messenger to Peter in prison, 
liberating the soul from the chains of doubt 
and despondency, illuminating her by the 
light of God's holy truth and bringing her out 
of the darksome prison into the company of 
the confiding, prayerful, joyous saints of God. 

*P. J. RYAN. 



CONTENTS. 

PART FIRST. 

Exterior Practices, 

Page. 

I. Spiritual Direction 1 

II. Temptations 8 

III. Prayer 19 

IV. Penance 37 

V. Confession 43 

VI, Holy Communion 62 

VII. Sundays and Holydays . . . .76 

VIII. Spiritual Reading 81 

PART SECOND. 

Interior Life, 

IX. Hope 85 

X. The Presence of God 90 

XI. Humility 93 

XII. Resignation 99 

XIII. Scruples 108 

XIV. Interior Peace 112 

XV. Sadness 116 

XVI. Liberty of Spirit 119 

XVII. Christian Perfection 130 

PART THIRD. 

Social Life, 

XVIII. Charity 146 

XIX. Zeal 153 

XX. Meekness 162 

XXI. Conversation 165 

XXII. Dress 173 

XXIII. Human Respect 176 

XXIV. Resolutions 178 

XXV. Conclusion ....... 182 

Additions 186 

(vii) 



ILiobt anb peace. 



INSTRUCTIONS FOR DEVOUT SOULS 

TO DISPEL THEIR DOUBTS AND ALLAY THEIE 

FEARS. 

By R. P. QUADRUPANI, Bamabite. 



PART FIRST. 

EXTERIOR PRACTICES. 
I. 

SPIRITUAL DIRECTION. 

For it is not you who speak, but 
the Holy Ghost. (S. Mark, xiii, 11.) 

1. It is absolutely true that in matters of 
conscience obedience to a spiritual director is 
obedience to God, for Christ has said to His 
ministers on earth : *'He that heareth you, 
heareth Me." (St. Luke, x, i6.) 

2. A soul possessed of this spirit of obedi- 
ence can not be lost : a soul devoid of this 
spirit can not be saved. (St. Philip Neri.) 

3. Saint Bernard says there is no need for 
the devil to tempt those who ignore obedience 
and permit themselves to be guided by their 



2 Light and Peace. 

own light and deterred by their fears, for they 
act the devil's part towards themselves. 

4. Do not fear that your director may be 
mistaken in what he prescribes for your 
guidance, or that he does not fully understand 
the state of your conscience because you did 
not explain it clearly enough to him. Such 
doubts cause obedience to be eluded or post- 
poned and thus frustrate the designs of God 
in placing you under the direction of a pru- 
dent guide. It was the priest's duty to have 
questioned you further had he not fully under- 
stood you, and that he did not do so is a posi- 
tive proof that he knew enough to enable him 
to pronounce a safe judgment. God has 
promised his special help to those who repre- 
sent Him in the direction of souls. Is not 
this assurance enough to induce you to obey 
with promptness and simplicity as the Holy 
Scripture commands? 

5. God does not show the state of our souls 
as clearly to us as He does to him who is to 
guide us in His place. You should be quite 
satisfied, then, if your director tells you the 
course you follow is the right one and that 
the mercy and grace of your Heavenly Father 
are guiding you in it. You should believe and 



Spiritual Direction. 3 

obey him in this as in all else, for as St. John 
of the Cross tells us, '4t betrays pride and 
lack of faith not to put entire confidence in 
what our confessor says." 

6. Spiritual obedience is most needful for 
a Christian. Ignore, therefore, the ground- 
less suspicion that you sin by obeying, and 
walk confidently in this path exempt from 
danger. "You sometimes fear," says St. 
Bonaventure, '^that in obeying you act against 
the dictates of your conscience, whereas, on 
the contrary, far from incurring guilt, you 
really increase your merit before God." 

7. We should allow obedience to regulate 
not only our exterior actions but likewise our 
mind and our will. Hence do not be satisfied 
with performing the works it prescribes, but 
let your thoughts and desires be also moulded 
according to its direction. In fact, it is in 
this interior submission that the merit of 
spiritual obedience essentially consists. 

8. Obedience should be simple and 
prompt, without reservation or disquietude. 
Simple, because you ought not to argue 
about it, but decide by the one thought : I 
must obey; prompt, for it is God whom you 
obey ; without reser\^ation, because obedience 



4 Light and Peace. 

extends to everything that does not violate 
God's law ; without disquietude, because in 
obeying God you cannot go astray : this 
thought should be sufficient to drive away all 
fear of doing or of having done wrong. 

9. When choosing a director, be careful to 
select one who has the necessary qualifica- 
tions. He should be not only virtuous, but 
prudent, charitable and learned. St. Francis 
de Sales gives the following opinion on the 
subject : 

*' ^Go,' said Tobias to his son, when about 
to send him into a strange country, ^go seek 
somewise man to conduct you.' I say the 
same to you, Philothea. If you sincerely 
desire to enter upon the way of devotion, seek 
a good guide to direct you therein. This 
advice is of the utmost importance and neces- 
sity. Whatever one may do, says the devout 
Avila, he can never be certain of fulfilling 
God's will, unless he practice that humble 
obedience which the saints so strongly recom- 
mend and to which they so faithfully 
adhere. And the Scriptures tell us : 'A 
faithful friend is a strong defence : and he 
that hath found him, hath found a treasure : 
.... a faithful friend is the medicine of life 



Spiriktal Direction. 5 

and immortality : and they that fear the Lord 
shall find one.' (Ecclesiasticus, c. VI, w. 
14-16.) 

But who can find such a friend? They 
that fear God, the Wise Man answers — that 
is to say, those humble souls who ardently 
desire their spiritual progress. Since it is so 
essential, then, Philothea, to have a skilful 
guide in the devout life, ask God fervently to 
give you one according to His Heart, and 
rest assured that when an angel is necessary 
to yau as to the young Tobias, He will give 
you a wise and faithful director. 

In fact, the selection once made, you should 
look upon your spiritual guide more as a 
guardian angel than as a mere man. You place 
your confidence not in him but in God, for it 
is God who will lead and instruct you through 
his instrumentality by inspiring him with the 
sentiments and words necessary for your 
guidance. Thus you may safely listen to him 
as to an angel sent from heaven to lead you 
there. To this confidence, add perfect candor. 
Speak quite frankly and tell him unreservedly 
all that is good, all that is evil in you, for the 
good will thus be strengthened, the evil 
weakened, and your soul shall thereby become 



6 Light and Peace. 

firmer in its sufferings and more moderate in 
its consolations. Great respect should also be 
united with confidence and in such nice pro- 
portion that the one shall not lessen the other : 
let your confidence in him be such as a respect- 
ful daughter reposes in her father, your respect 
for him such as that with which a son con- 
fides in his mother. In a word, this friend- 
ship, though strong and tender, should be 
altogether sacred and spiritual in its nature. 

* Choose one among a thousand,' says Avila : 
among ten thousand, rather, I should say, for 
there are fewer than one would suppose fitted 
for this office of spiritual director. Charity, 
learning and prudence are indispensable to it, 
and if any one of these qualities be absent, 
your choice will not be unattended with dan- 
ger. I repeat, ask God to inspire your selec- 
tion and when you have made it thank Him 
sincerely, and then remain constant to your 
decision. If you go to God in all simplicity 
and with humility and confidence, you will 
undoubtedly obtain a favorable answer to 
your petition." 

In conclusion, it may be well to remind you 
that the director and the confessor have not 
necessarily to be the same priest, St. Francis 



Spiritual Direction. 7 

de Sales was the spiritual director of many 
persons to whom he was not the ordinary con- 
fessor. * ^To a director, ' ' he says, * * we should 
reveal our entire soul, whereas to a confessor 
we simply accuse ourselves of our sins in order 
to receive absolution for them. ' ' 



TEMPTATIONS. 

My brethren, count it all joy when 
ye shall fall into divers temptations. 
(Epist. S. Jas., Cat., c, i, v. 2.) 

Now if I do that which I will not, 
it is no more I that do it, but sin, 
which dwelleth in me. 

(St. P., Rom., c. vii, v. 20.) 

* I. ''If we are tempted," says the Holy 
Spirit, '4t is a sign that God loves us." 
Those whom God best loves have been most 
exposed to temptations. ' 'Because thou wast 
acceptable to God," said the angel to Tobias, 
"it was necessary that temptation should 
prove thee." (Tobias, c. xii, v. 13.) 

2. Do not ask God to deliver you from 
temptations, but to grant you the grace not to 
succumb to them and to do nothing contrary 
to His divine will. He who refuses the com- 

(8) 



Temptations. 9 

bat, renounces the crown. Place all your 
trust in God and God will Himself do battle 
for you against the enemy. ^ 

3. * 'These persistent temptations come 
from the malice of the devil," says St. Francis 
de Sales, ''but the trouble and suffering they 
cause us come from the mercy of God. Thus, 
despite the will of the tempter, God converts 
his evil machinations into a distress which 
we may make meritorious. Therefore I say 
your temptations are from the devil and hell, 
but your anxiety and affliction are from God 
and heaven.'' Despise temptation, then, and 
open wide your soul to this suffering which 
God sends in order to purify you here that He 
may reward you hereafter. 

4. "Let the wind blow," remarks the 
same Saint, "and do not mistake the rustling 
of leaves for the clashing of arms. Be per- 
fectly convinced that all the temptations of 
hell are powerless to defile a soul that does not 
love them. St. Paul endured terrible temp- 
tations, yet God, through love, did not deliver 



1 Saint Paul, I. Cor. x., 13, says: . . . God is faithful. 
Who will not suffer you to be tempted above what you 
are able : but will even make with temptation an issue, 
that j^ou may be able to bear it. 



10 Light and Peace. 

him from them." Look upon God as an in- 
finitely good and tender father and believe 
that He only allows the devil to try His chil- 
dren that their merits may increase and their 
recompense be correspondingly greater. 

5. The more persistent the temptation, 
the clearer it is that you have not given con- 
sent to it. *^It is a good sign," says St. 
Francis de Sales, '^when the tempter makes 
so much noise and commotion outside of the 
will, for it shows that he is not within." An 
enemy does not besiege a fortress that is 
already in his power, and the more obstinate 
the attack, the more certain we may be that 
our resistance continues. 

6. Your fears lead you to believe you are 
defeated at the very moment you are gaining 
the victory. This comes from the fact that 
you confound feeling with consent, and, mis- 
taking a passive condition of the imagination 
for an act of the will, you consider that you 
have yielded to the temptation because you 
felt it keenly. 

* St. Francis de Sales, with his usual sim- 
plicity, thus describes this warring of the 
flesh against the spirit : 

^ 'You are right, my dear daughter. Tlier^ 



Temptations, 11 

are two women within you .... and tlie two 
children of these different mothers quarrel, 
and the good-for-nothing one is so bad that 
sometimes the good one can scarcely defend 
herself, and then she takes it into her head 
that she has been worsted and that the wicked 
one is braver than she. Now, surely, this is 
not true. The bad one is not the stronger by 
any means, but only slyer, more persistent 
and more obstinate. When she succeeds in 
making you weep she is delighted, because 
that is always just so much time lost, and she 
is content to make you lose time when she 
cannot make you lose eternity."* ^ 

It is not always in our power to restrain 



1 The Chevalier du Chambon de M6silliac, who trans- 
lated this little work of P. Quadrupani's into French, 
inserted much additional matter, quotations for the 
most part from the same authorities frequently cited by 
the Italian author. These selections he placed at the 
end of each Instructiofi under the title of * 'Additions.'* 
The English translator has changed this arrangement 
into one which seems more convenient and better cal- 
culated to maintain the connection of ideas. Therefore 
the extracts chosen by the French translator are here 
inserted in the body of the text, immediately following 
the paragraphs which suggested them, and are marked 
by asterisks to distinguish them from the original 
matter, 



12 Liglit and Peace. 

the imagination. St. Jerome had retired into 
the desert and still his fancy represented to 
him the dances of the Roman ladies. His 
body was benumbed, as it were, and his blood 
chilled by the severity of his mortifications, 
and yet the flames of concupiscence encom- 
passed and tortured his heart. During these 
frightful conflicts the holy anchorite suffered, 
but he did not sin ; he was tormented but was 
not guilty ; on the contrary, his merits were 
augmented in the sight of God in proportion 
to the intensity of the temptations. 

7. The holy abbot St. Anthony was wont 
to say to the phantoms of his mind : I see you, 
but I do not look at you : I see you because 
it does not depend upon me that my imagina- 
tion places before my eyes things I would 
wish not to see ; I do not look at you because 
with my will I repulse and reject you. ''It 
is so much the essence of sin to be voluntary, ^ ' 
says St. Augustine, ''that if not voluntary, 
it is not sin. ' ' 

8. The attraction of the feelings towards the 
object presented by the imagination is at times 
so strong that the will seems to have been 
carried awaj^ and overcome by a sort of fasci- 
nation. This, however, is not the case. The 



Temptations. 13 

will suffered, but did not consent ; it was 
attacked and wounded, but not conquered. 
This state of things coincides with what St. 
Paul says of the revolt of the flesh against the 
spirit and of their unceasing warfare. The 
soul, indeed, experiences strange sensations, 
but as she does not consent to them, she 
passes through the ordeal unsullied, just as 
substances coated with oil may be immersed 
in water without absorbing a single drop 
of it. 

* St. Francis de Sales explains this distinc- 
tion so plainly and yet so simply in one of his 
letters, that it may be useful to repeat the 
passage here: *' Courage, my dear soul, I say 
it with great love in Jesus Christ, dear soul, 
courage! As long as we can exclaim reso- 
lutely, even though without feeling, My 
Jesus ! there is no cause for alarm. Do not 
tell me it appears to you that you say it in a 
cowardly way, and only by doing great 
violence to yourself. It is precisely this holy 
violence that bears away the kingdom of 
heaven. Do you not see, my daughter, it is 
a sign that the enemy has taken everything 
within our fortress except the impenetrable, 
unconquerable tower — and that can never 



14 Light and Peace. 

be lost save by wilful surrender. This tower 
is the free-will which, perfectly visible to the 
eye of God, occupies the highest and most 
spiritual region of the soul, dependent on none 
but God and oneself; and when all the 
other faculties are lost and in subjection to 
the enemy, it alone remains free to give or 
to refuse consent. Now, you often see souls 
afflicted because the enemy, occupying all the 
other faculties, makes therein so great a noise 
and confusion that they scarce can hear what 
this superior will says ; for though it has a 
clearer and more penetrating voice than the 
inferior will, the loud, boisterous cries of the 
latter almost drown it : but note this well : 
as long as the temptation is displeasing to 
you, there is nothing to fear ; for why should 
it displease you, except because you do not 
will it?"* 

9. Should it frequently happen that you 
have not a distinct consciousness of your suc- 
cess against temptation, it may be that God 
refuses you this satisfaction in order that, lack- 
ing this clear assurance, your knowledge 
may come through obedience. Therefore, 
when your spiritual director, after hearing 
your explanation, says that you have not given 



Temptations. , 15 

consent, you should be satisfied with his deci- 
sion and abide by it with perfect tranquillity, 
discarding all fear that he did not understand 
you aright or that you did not explain the 
matter sufficiently. These doubts are but 
fresh artifices of the devil to rob you of the 
merit of obedience. As has been said above, 
to give way to such inquietude is to offend 
seriously against this virtue, for all direction 
would thus be rendered impossible, by the 
failure of the penitent to recognize God Him- 
self in the person of his director. 

lo. To constitute a mortal sin three con- 
ditions must co-exist. First, the matter must 
be weighty ; secondly, the mind must have 
full knowledge of the guilt of the action, omis- 
sion or dangerous occasion in question ; and, 
thirdly, the will, through a criminal preference 
for the forbidden action, culpable omission, 
or proximate occasion of sin, must give full 
consent. These reflections should serve to 
reassure your mind if the fear of having com- 
mitted a mortal sin disturb it, for it is very 
difficult for this threefold union of conditions 
to be effected in a God-fearing soul. How- 
ever, perfect security can come, and ought to 
come, only from spiritual obedience. 



16 Light and Peace. 

II. In temptations against faith and 
purity, do not make great efforts to form acts 
of these virtues, but simply turn a pleading 
glance towards God, without speaking even 
to this compassionate Friend concerning the 
thought that afflicts you, lest thereby you root 
the evil suggestion more firmly. Then, with- 
out disquieting yourself, engage at once in 
some exterior occupation or continue what 
you were doing. Make no answer to the 
tempter, but ignore him, just as though his 
assault had never occurred. In this way, 
whilst preserving your own peace of soul, you 
will cover your enemy with confusion. 

*The same counsel is given by St. Francis 
de Sales in his characteristic style : 

'^Do you know how God acts on these 
occasions? He permits the wicked maker of 
such wares to come and offer them to us for 
sale, in order that by the contempt we show 
for them we may testify our love for holy 
things. And for this is it necessary, my dear 
child, to feel anxious, and to change our posi- 
tion? No, no. It is only the devil who is 
prowling around your soul, raging and storm- 
ing, to see if he can find an open door. . . . 
What! and you would be annoyed at that? 



Temptations. 17 

Let the enemy storm away; only be careful on 
your part to keep all the entrances well fast- 
ened, and finally lie vnll grow weary ; or if lie 
do not, God will force him to raise the siege. ' ' * 

12. Though you should be assailed by 
temptations during your entire life time, do 
not be disquieted, for your merits will increase 
in proportion to your trials and your crown be 
accordingly all the brighter in heaven. The 
only thing necessary is to remain firm in your 
resolution to despise the efforts of the tempter. 

*^'This serious trial, and so many others 
that have assailed you and left you troubled in 
mind, do not at all surprise me, since there 
is nothing worse. Do not worry, then, my 
beloved daughter. Should we allow ourselves 
to be swept away by the current and the 
storm? Let Satan rage at the door; he may 
knock and stamp, and clamor and howl, and 
do his worst, but rest assured that he can 
never enter our souls but through the door of 
our consent. Let us only keep that closed 
tight and -often look to see that it is well 
secured and we need have no concern about 
all the rest — there is no danger." * — St. 
Francis de Sales. 

13. The most learned theologians and 
2 



18 Light and Peace. 

masters of the spiritual life agree in saying 
that simply to ignore a temptation is a mucli 
more effectual means to repulse it than words 
and acts of the contrary virtues. On this 
subject read attentively Chapters III. and IV. 
of the Introduction to a Devout Life. You will 
find much light and consolation in them. See 
also Chapter XII. of the Spiritual Combat ^ 
and Chapters VI., VII., XII., XII., XX., 
XXIX., LV., and I.VII. of the Third Book of 
the Imitation. 



Ill, 



PRAYER. 

Who can persevere the whole day 
in the praise of God? I will sug- 
gest a help. Whatsoever thou 
doest do well, and thou hast praised 
God. 
(S. Aug., on Ps. xxxiv., Disc. 2.) 

Oh ! what do I suffer interiorly 
whilst with my mind I consider 
heavenly things ; and presently a 
crowd of carnal thoughts inter- 
rupt me as I pray. 
(Imit., B. III.,c. XIvVIII., V. 5.) 

1. We ought to love meditation and should 
make it often on the Passion of our divine 
Lord, striving above all to derive therefrom 
fruits of humility, patience and charity. 

2. If you experience great dryness in your 
meditations or other prayers, do not feel dis- 
tressed and conclude that God has turned His 
Face away from you. Far from it. Prayer 
said with aridity is usually the most meritori- 
ous. * It is quite a common error to con- 
found the value of prayer with its sensible 

(IS) 



20 Light and Peace. 

results, and tlie merit acquired with, tlie satis- 
faction experienced. The facility and sweet- 
ness 3^ou may have in prayer are favors from 
God and for which you will have to account 
to Hinj. : hence the result is not merit but debt. 
(Read the Imitation, B. II, c. IX.) * The 
very fact that we derive less gratification from 
such prayer, makes it all the more pleasing to 
God, because we are thus suffering for love of 
Him. Let us call to mind at such times that 
our Ivord prayed without consolation through- 
out His bitter agony. 

* '*A11 this trouble comes from self-love 
and from the good opinion we have of our- 
selves. If our hearts do not melt with tender- 
ness, if we have no relish or sensible feeling 
in prayer, if we do not enjoy great interior 
sweetness during meditation, we are at once 
overwhelmed with sadness : if we find diffi- 
culty in doing good, if some obstacle is 
opposed to our pious designs, we give way to 
disquietude and are eager to conquer all this 
and to be free from it. Why? Undoubtedly 
because we love consolations, our own com- 
fort, our own convenience. We wish to 
pray immersed in sweetness, and to be vir- 
tuous that we may eat sugar ; and we do not 



Praiier, 21 



,Lf 



contemplate our Saviour Jesus Christ, who, 
prone upon the ground, is covered with a stveat 
of hlood caused by the intense conflict He 
feels interiorly between the repugnances of 
the inferior portion of His soul and the resolu- 
tions of the superior."* — ^St. Francis de Sales. 

* The same teaching is given by another 
great master of the spiritual life : 

"We frequently seek the gratification and 
consolation of self-love in the testimony we 
desire to render to ourselves. Thus we are 
disturbed about our lack of sensible fervor, 
whereas in reality we never pray so well as 
when we are tempted to think we are not 
praying at all. We fear to pray badly then, 
but we should fear rather to give way to the 
vexation of our cowardly nature, to a philo- 
sophical infidelity, which ever wishes to 
demonstrate to itself its own operations — in 
fine, to an impatient desire to see and to feel 
in order to console ourselves. 

There is no penance more bitter than this 
state of pure faith without sensible support. 
Hence I conclude that it is freer than any 
other from illusion. Strange temptation ! to 
seek impatiently for sensible consolation 
through fear of not being sujffiiciently penitent ! 



22 LigM and Peace. 

Ah ! why not rather accept as a penance the 
deprivation of that consolation we are so 
tempted to seek?"* — Fenelon. 

3. You will sometimes imagine that at 
prayer your soul is not in the presence of God 
and that only your body is in the church, like 
the statues and candelabras that adorn the 
altars. Think, then, that you share with 
those inanimate objects the honor of serving 
as ornaments for the house of God, and that 
in the presence of your Creator even this 
humble role should seem glorious to you. 

* ''You tell me that you cannot pray well. 
But what better prayer could there be than to 
represent to God again and again, as you are 
doing, your nothingness and misery? The 
most touching appeal beggars can make is 
merely to expose to us their deformities and 
necessities. But there are times when you 
cannot even do this much, you say, and that 
you remain there like a statue. Well, even 
that is better than nothing. Kings and princes 
have statues in their palaces for no other pur- 
pose than that they may take pleasure in 
looking at them : be satisfied then to fulfil the 
same office in the presence of God, and when 
it so pleases Him He will animate the 
statue,'' *^St. Francis de Sales, 



Prayer. 23 

4. When you have not consciously or 
voluntarily yielded to distractions, do not stop 
to find what may have been their cause, or to 
discover if you have in any way given occa- 
sion to them. This would be simply to weary 
and disquiet yourself unprofitably. From 
whatever direction they come, you can convert 
them into a source of merit by casting yourself 
into the arms of the Divine Mercy. St. Francis 
de Sales when asked how he prayed, replied : 
'^I cannot say it too often — I receive peace- 
fully whatever the Lord sends me. If He 
consoles me, I kiss the right hand of his 
mercy; if I am dry and distracted, I kiss the 
left hand of His justice." This method is 
the only good one, for as the same Saint says : 
*'He who truly loves prayer, loves it for the 
love of God : and he who loves it for the love 
of God, wishes to experience in it naught 
but what God is pleased to send him. ' ' Now, 
whatever you may experience in prayer, is 
precisely what God wills. 

5. St. Francis de Sales teaches us that 
merely to keep ourselves peacefully and tran- 
quilly in the presence of God, without other 
desire or pretension than to be near Him and 
to please Him, is of itself an excellent prayer. 



24 Liglit and Peace. 

''Do not exhaust yourself," tie says, '4d 
making efforts to speak to your dear Master, 
for you are speaking to Him by the sole fact 
that you remain there and contemplate Him." 
* ''Remember that the graces and favors of 
prayer do not come from earth but from 
heaven and therefore that no effort of ours can 
acquire them, although, it is true, we must 
dispose ourselves for their reception diligently, 
yet withal humbly and tranquilly. We ought to 
keep our hearts wide open and await the blessed 
dew from heaven. The following considera- 
tion should never be forgotten when we go to 
prayer, namely, that we draw near to God 
and place ourselves in His presence principally 
for two reasons. The first is to render to God 
the honor and the homage we owe Him, and 
this can be done without God speaking to us 
or we to Him, for the duty is fulfilled by 
acknowledging that He is our Creator and we 
are His vile creatures, and by remaining before 
Him, prostrate in spirit, awaiting His com- 
mands. The second reason is to speak to God 
and to listen to Him when He speaks to us by 
His inspirations and the interior movements 

of grace Now, one or other of these two 

advantages can never fail to be derived from 



Prayer, 25 

prayer. If, then, we can speak to onr Lord, 
let us do so in praise and supplication : if 
we are unable to speak, let us remain in His 
presence notwithstanding, offering Him our 
silent homage ; he will see us there, our 
patience will touch Him and our silence will 
plead with Him and win His favor. Another 
time, to our utter astonishment. He will take 
us by the hand, and converse with us, and 
make a hundred turns with us in His garden 
of prayer. And even should He never do 
this, still let us be content to know it is our 
duty to be in His retinue, and that it is a 
great favor and a greater honor for us that He 
suffers us in His presence. 

In this way we do not force ourselves to 
speak to God, for we know that merely to re- 
main close to Him is as useful, nay, perhaps 
more useful to us, though it may be less to 
our liking. Therefore when you draw near to 
our Lord speak to Him if you can ; if you 
cannot, stay there, let Him see you, and do 
not be anxious about anything else .... Take 
courage, then, tell your Saviour you will not 
leave Him even should He never grant you 
any sensible sweetness ; tell Him that you will 
remain before Him until He has given you 
His blessing." * — St. Francis de Sales, 



26 Light and Peace. 

6. The same Saint gives further valuable 
advice as follows : ' 'Many persons fail to make 
a distinction between the presence of God in 
their souls and the consciousness of this ador- 
able presence, between faith and the sensible 
feeling of faith. This shows a great want of 
discernment. When they do not realize 
God's presence dwelling within them, they 
suppose He has withdrawn Himself through 
some fault of theirs. This is an ignorant and 
hurtful error. A man who endures martyrdom 
for love of God does not think actually and 
exclusively of God but much of his own suf- 
ferings ; and yet the absence of this feeling of 
faith does not deprive him of the great merit 
due to his faith and the resolutions it caused 
him to make and to keep." 

7. Your vocal prayers should be few in 
number but said with great fervor. The 
strength derived from food does not depend 
upon the quantity taken but upon its being 
well digested. Far better one Our Father or 
one Psalm said with devout attention than 
entire rosaries and long offices recited hur- 
riedly and with restless eagerness. 

8. If you feel whilst saying vocal prayers — • 
those not of obligation — that God invites you 



Prayer. 27 

to meditate, gently and promptly follow this 
divine impulse. You may be sure that in 
doing so you make an exchange most profit- 
able to yourself and agreeable to God from 
whom the inspiration comes. 

9. Prepare yourself for prayer by peaceful 
recollection and begin it without agitation or 
uneasiness. St. Francis de Sales has this to 
say on the subject : ''Some little time before 
you are going to pray, calm and compose your 
heart, and be hopeful of doing well ; for if you 
begin without hope and already devoid of 
relish, you will find it difficult to regain an 
appetite .... The disquiet you experience in 
prayer, accompanied by great eagerness to 
discover some object that can fix and satisfy 
your thoughts, is of itself sufficient to prevent 
you finding what you seek. When a thing is 
searched for with too great eagerness, one may 
have his hands or his eyes almost upon it a 
hundred times and yet fail to perceive it. 
This vain and useless anxiety in regard to 
prayer can result in nothing but weariness of 
mind, and this in turn produces coldness and 
apathy in your soul." 

10. Be careful not to overburden yourself 
with too many prayers, either mental or vocal, 



28 LigJit and Peace. 

As soon as you feel uncontrollable weariness 
or distaste, postpone your prayers, if possible, 
and seek relief in some pleasant pastime, or 
conversation, or in any other innocent diver- 
sion. Tliis advice is given by St. Thomas 
and other learned Fathers of the Church and 
is of the utmost importance. Follow it con- 
scientiously, for lassitude of mind begets cold- 
ness and a kind of spiritual stupor. 

II. Never repeat a prayer, even should 
you have said it with many distractions. You 
cannot imagine the innumerable difficulties 
in which you may become entangled by the 
habit of repeating your prayers. Therefore I 
beg of you not to do it. * In St. Ignatius' 
time there was a certain religious of the 
Society of Jesus who was a victim of this 
kind of scruple. The recital of the daily 
Office always kept him much longer than 
was necessary because he would repeat again 
and again and for hours at a time any passage 
that he suspected had not been said with 
sufficient attention. St. Ignatius tried to cor- 
rect him by various means, but in vain. At 
length the thought occurred that one scruple 
might be cured by another. He therefore 
commanded the poor Jesuit, under pain of sin 



Prayer. 29 

and in virtue of religious obedience, to close 
his breviary every day at the end of a specified 
time, this being just enough to allow him to 
read the Office through once and rather 
quickly. The first day the religious was 
obliged to stop before he had half finished. 
This caused him such intense regret that ere 
long the fear of not being able to say the 
entire Office made him contract the habit of 
finishing it within the allotted time. * 
Begin your prayer with the desire of being 
very recollected. This is all that is necessary. 
'^A desire has the same value in the sight of 
God as a good work", says St. Gregory the 
Great, ^^when the accomplishment of it does 
not depend upon our will.'' During these 
involuntary distractions God withdraws the 
sensible feeling of His presence, but His love 
remains in the depths of our hearts. St. 
Theresa, in the midst of dryness and distrac- 
tions, was wont to say: *^If I am not pray- 
ing I am at least doing penance." I should 
say : you are doing both the one and the 
other : you do penance by all that you are 
suffering, you pray by the desire and intention 
you have to do so. 

12,. You should never repeat a prayer nor a 



30 Light and Peace. 

point in yonr meditation even if you have had 
in the inferior portion of your soul ideas and 
feelings at variance with the words pronounced 
by your lips or with the sentiments you wished 
to excite in your heart. Nay, do not be in- 
duced to do it, even were these ideas and feel- 
ings injurious to God. Under such conditions, 
be careful not to give way to anxiety and 
agitation and do not try to make reparation for 
an imaginary offence. Continue your prayer 
in peace as if nothing had disturbed it, not 
taking the trouble to notice these dogs that 
come from the devil and that can bark around 
you while you pray in order to distract you, if 
maybe, but that cannot bite you unless you let 
them. * '^This temptation should be treated 
exactly the same as temptations of the flesh : do 
not dispute with it at all, rather imitate the 
children of Israel who made no attempt to 
break the bones of the paschal lamb but cast 
them into the fire. You need not answer the 
enemy, nor even pretend to hear what he says. 
Let the wretch clamor at the door as much as 
he wants to, it is not even necessary to call : 
Who is there? What you tell me is no doubt 
true, you say, but he annoys me and the 
uproar he makes prevents those within from 



Prayer. 31 

hearing one another speak. That makes no 
difference. Have patience, prostrate yourself 
before God and remain at His feet. He will 
understand from your very attitude, although 
you utter no words, that you are His and that 
you crave His help. Above all, however, keep 
yourself well within and do not on any account 
open the door, either to see who it is, or to 
drive the importunate fellow away. Eventu- 
ally he will tire of shouting and will leave you 
in peace."* St. Augustine says that the devil 
is a formidable giant to those who fear him, 
but only a miserable dwarf to those who 
despise him. 

13. Should it happen that the whole time 
given to prayer be passed in rejecting temp- 
tations or in recalling your mind from its 
wanderings, and you do not succeed in 
giving birth to a single devout thought or 
sentiment, St. Francis de Sales is authority 
for saying that your prayer is nevertheless 
all the more meritorious from the fact of its 
being so unsatisfactory to you. It makes you 
more like to our divine Lord when he prayed 
in the Garden of Gethsemani and on Mount 
Calvary. ' 'Better to eat bread without sugar, 

* St. Francis de Sales. 



32 Liglit and Peace. 

than sugar without bread. We should seek the 
God of consolations , not the consolations of 
God : and in order to possess God in heaven, 
we must now suffer with Him and for Him." 

* ''When your mind wanders or gives way 
to distractions, gently recall it and place it 
once more close to its Divine Master. If you 
should do nothing else but repeat this during 
the whole time of prayer, your hour would be 
very well spent and you would perform a 
spiritual exercise most acceptable to God. ' ' * — 
St. Francis de Sales. 

14. It is well to bear in mind that in com- 
manding us to pray always our Saviour did 
not mean actual prayer, as that would be an 
impossibility. The desire to glorify God by all 
our actions suffices for the rigorous fulfilment 
of this precept, if this desire be habitual and 
permanent. "You pray often," says St. 
Augustine, "if you often have a desire to pay 
homage to God by your actions : you pray 
always if you always have this desire, no 
matter how you may be otherwise employed. ' ' 

* "Need we be surprised that St. Augustine 
often assures us that the whole Christian life 
is but one long, [continual tending of our 
hearts towards that eternal justice for which 



Prayer. 33 

tve sigh here below? Our only happiness 
consists in ever thirsting for it, and this 
thirst is in itself a prayer ; consequently if we 
always desire this justice, we pray always. 
Do not think it necessary to pronounce a great 
many words and to struggle much with one's 
self in order to pray. To pray is to ask God 
that His will may be done, to form some good 
desire, to raise the heart to God, to long for 
the riches He promises us, to sigh over our 
miseries and the danger we are in of displeas- 
ing Him by violating His holy law. Now 
this requires neither science nor method nor 
reasoning ; one can pray without any distinct 
thought; no head-work is necessary; only a 
moment of time and a loving effusion of the 
heart are needed ; and even this moment may 
be simultaneously occupied with something 
else, for so great is God's condescension to our 
weakness that He permits us to divide it when 
necessary between Him and creatures. Yes, 
during this moment you can continue what 
you were doing : it is sufficient to offer to God 
your most ordinary occupations, or to perform 
them with the general intention of glorifying 
Him. This is the continual prayer required 

by St. Paul .... thought by many devout per- 
3 



S4 Light and Peace. 

sons to be impracticable, but in reality very 
easy for those wbo know that the best of all 
prayers is to do everything with a pure inten- 
tion, and frequently to renew the desire to 
perform all our actions for God and in accord- 
ance with His divine will." — Fenelon. * 

15. You should never omit or neglect the 
duties of your state of life in order to say cer- 
tain self-imposed prayers. These duties area 
substitute for prayers and are equally effica- 
cious, St. Thomas teaches, for obtaining the 
graces you stand in need of and which are 
promised to those who ask them properly. It 
is even more meritorious to perform some 
work for the love of God, to whom we offer 
it, than merely to raise the soul to Him by 
actual prayer. 

* ^' Every person is bound to observe 
strictly the duties of his particular calling. 
Whoever fails to do this, although he should 
raise the dead to life, is guilty of sin and 
should the sin be grave deserves damnation if 
he die therein. For example, bishops are 
obliged to make a visitation of their diocese 
in order to console and instruct their flock 
and to rectify whatever may be amiss. If I, 
a bishop, neglect this duty I shall be lost 



Prayer. 35 

even though I spend my entire time in prayer 
and fast all my life." — St. Francis de Sales. * 

1 6. Make frequent use of the prayers 
called ejaculations^ — which are short and lov- 
ing aspirations that raise the soul to its Crea- 
tor. According to St. Francis de Sales, ejac- 
ulations can in case of necessity replace all 
other prayers, whereas all other prayers can- 
not supply for the omission of ejaculations. 

* * ^Acquire the habit of making frequent 
ejaculations. They are sighs of love that dart 
upwards to God to sue for His aid and succor. 
It will greatly facilitate this custom if you 
keep in mind the point of your morning's 
meditation that you liked best and ponder it 
over during the day. In sickness let pious 
ejaculations take the place of all other prayers. 
— St. Francis de Sales. * 

17. Ejaculatory prayers can be made at all 
times, wherever we are or whatever we may 
be doing. They might be compared to those 
aromatic pastilles, which we may always have 
about us and take from time to time to 
strengthen the stomach and please the palate. 
Ejaculations have a like effect on the soul 
by refreshing and fortifying it. 

18. The monks of old, of whom St. Angus- 



36 Light and Peace. 

tine speaks, could not say long prayers, obliged 
as they were to earn their bread by daily toil. 
Ejaculatory prayers, therefore, took the place 
of all others for them, and it may be said that 
although laboring unceasingly they prayed 
continually. 

19. I cannot too earnestly urge you to 
accustom yourself to the profitable and easy 
practice of making frequent ejaculations. It 
is far preferable to saying many other vocal 
prayers, for these when too numerous are apt 
to employ the lips only rather than to reani- 
mate and enlighten the soul. 

20. St. Theresa's opinion is that the body 
should be in a comfortable position when we 
pray, as otherwise it is difficult for the mind 
to pay the proper attention to prayer and to 
the presence of God. Do not then fatigue 
your body by remaining too long prostrate 
or kneeling : the important thing is that the 
soul should humble itself before God in sen- 
timents of respect, confidence and love. 

Read Chap. XIII, Part II, of the Intro- 
duction to a Devout Life. 



IV. 

PENANCE. 

A sacrifice to God is an afflicted 
spirit ; a contrite and humble heart, 
O God, thou wilt not despise. 

(Ps. L., 19.) 

I. According to the teaching of St. Thomas 
there are three ways of doing penance, name- 
ly, fasting, prayer, and alms-deeds — either 
corporal or spiritual . Therefore you must not 
suppose you are prevented from doing penance 
when not allowed to subject your body to 
severe fasts and painful mortifications. The 
other two penitential works, prayer and alms- 
giving, can in this case take the place of 
corporal austerities in the fulfilment of the 
Christian duty of penance. Observe also that 
it is not in accordance with the spirit of the 
laws of God and of His Church, which pre- 
scribe fasting, to injure your health thereby, 
nor to hinder the accomplishment of the 
duties of your state of life. 

(37) 



38 Light and Peace. 

2. Labor, sickness, disappointments, re- 
verse of fortune, dryness in prayer, all these 
when accepted with resignation are penitential 
works, such, too, as are the more agreeable to 
God from their being so distasteful to ourselves. 
All virtues may be divided into two great class- 
es, active and passive. The characteristic of 
the active virtues is to do good, of the passive, 
to endure evil. Now the virtues of the second 
class are more meritorious and less perilous. 
In the active virtues nature can have a large 
share, and a dangerous self-complacency, or sa- 
tisfaction in their effects, may easily glide into 
them. This danger is less to be feared in the 
practice of the passive virtues, especially v/hen 
the sufferings are not of our own choosing 
but come to us direct from the hand of God. 

3. St. Jerome teaches that when the devil 
cannot turn a soul away from the love of 
virtue, he tries to urge it to excessive mortifi- 
cation, in order that it may thus become 
exhausted and lose the vigor indispensable to 
its spiritual progress. Numbers of devout 
people have fallen into this snare. 

4. **I charge 3^ou," says St. Francis de 
Sales, ^ 'to preserve your health carefully, for 
God exacts this of you, and to husband your 



Penance. 39 

strength so as to employ it in His service. It 
is even better to save more than the requisite 
amount of strength than to reduce it too 
much, for we can always lessen it at will, 
whereas, once lost, it is no easy matter to 
regain it.'* Therefore give your body the 
nourishment it needs to maintain its strength 
and health. 

5. We learn from Cassian and St. Thomas 
that in a celebrated conference held by the 
holy Abbot St. Anthony with the most learned 
religious of Egypt, it was decided that of all 
virtues moderation is the most useful, as it 
guards and preserves all the others. It is 
owing to the lack of this essential modera- 
tion in their devotional exercises and mortifi- 
cations that many persons whilst seeking 
holiness find only ill health. As a consequence 
they eventually abandon the path of perfec- 
tion, judging it impracticable because they 
have attempted to walk in it bound with 
fetters. 

6. St. Augustine makes the following apt 
comparison, which you can look upon as a 
good rule in this matter: *'The body is a 
poor invalid confided to the charity of the 
soul, the soul being commissioned to give it 



40 Lialit and Peace. 

such assistance as it requires. Hunger, thirst, 
fatigue, are its habitual ailments ; let the soul 
then charitably apply to them the needful 
remedies, provided these be always within the 
bounds of moderation and prudence." He 
who acts in this way fulfils a duty of obedi- 
ence to his Creator. 

7. From these various opinions it is easy 
to see how false are certain maxims met with 
in some ascetical works : for example, that it 
is of small consequence if one should shorten 
his life by ten or fifteen years in order to save 
his soul. If this were true, a much surer way 
would be to secure a still speedier death, and 
see to what that would lead. No : it is not 
permissible in ordinary practice to impose 
upon ourselves arbitrarily any kind of mortifi- 
cation that would directly tend to shorten life. 
''To kill one's self with a single blow," says 
St. Jerome, ' 'or to kill one's self little by little 
— I make but slight distinction between these 
two crimes." Life, health and strength are 
blessings that have been given us in trust, 
and we cannot lawfully dispose of them as 
though they belonged to us absolutely. 

8. The example of those saints who prac- 
tised extraordinary penances deserves our 



Penance. 41 

sincere admiration, but it is not in these ex- 
terior acts that we should try to imitate them; 
to do this would necessitate being as holy as 
they were. Duplicate their miracles also, 
then, if you can. *^If we had to copy the 
saints in everything they did,'' says St. Fran- 
ces de Chantal, *'it would be necessary to 
spend our life in a horrible cave like St. John 
Climachus, or on top of a pillar as St. Simon 
Stylites did, to live several weeks without 
other nourishment than the Holy Eucharist 
like St. Catharine of Sienna, or to eat but a 
single ounce of food each day as St. Aloysius 
did." Aspirations to imitate the saints in 
what is extraordinary are the effect of secret 
pride and not of genuine virtue. 

* The French translator of these Instruc- 
tions had a conversation in Rome with the 
learned and pious Jesuit, Rev. Father Rozaven, 
on this subject. Speaking of the extraordi- 
nary fasts and mortifications of St. Ignatius, 
Father Rozaven said : ' 'Do not let us confound 
cause and effect. It is not because he did 
these things that Ignatius became a saint : on 
the contrary, it is because he was already a 
saint that it was possible and permissible for 
him to do them.'' In truth every act that 



42 Light and Peace. 

exceeds human strength is an act of presump- 
tion unless it be the result of a special inspi- 
ration, and the Church approves it only if she 
recognizes this divine impulse which alone can 
authorize a deviation from the general rule. 
It is owing to such an exception that she 
venerates among those who suffered for the 
faith Saint Theodora, Saint Pomposa, Saint 
Flora and Saint Denys, notwithstanding the 
fact that they violated the law which forbids 
any one to seek martyrdom. The same spirit 
influenced her in sanctioning the voluntary 
death of Sampson and of Saint Appolonia, 
who might be called pious suicides were it 
allowable to connect two such contradictory 
words.— Read Chap. XXIII, Part III. of the 
Introduction to a Devout Life, * 



V. 

CONFESSION. 

I said : I will confess against 
myself my injustice to the Lord, 
and thou hast forgiven the wick- 
edness of my sin. (Ps. XXXI, 5.) 

But if any man sin, we have 
an advocate with the Father, 
Jesus Christ the Just. 
(1st Epist. St. John, c. II, v. 1.) 

Whose sins ye shall forgive, 
they are forgiven them : and 
whose ye shall retain, they are 
retained. (St. John, c. XX. v. 23.) 

I. The sacrament of penance is a sacra- 
ment of mercy. We should therefore approach 
it with confidence and in peace. Saint Fran- 
cis de Sales assures us that for those who go 
to confession once a week a quarter of an hour 
is enough for the examination of conscience, 
and a still shorter time for exciting contrition. 
Not even this much is necessary, he adds, for 
those who confess more frequently. 

(43) 



44 Liglit and Peace, 

2. Faults omitted in confession either 
because they were forgotten or because they 
seemed too trivial to mention, are nevertheless 
effaced by the absolution. St. Francis de 
Sales has this to say on the subject: ''You 
must not feel worried if you cannot remember 
your sins when preparing for confession, for 
it is incredible that any one who often ex- 
amines her conscience would overlook or be 
unable to recall such faults as are important. 
Neither should you be so keenly anxious to 
mention every minute imperfection, every 
trifling fault ; it is enough to speak of these 
to our Lord, with a sigh of regret and a 
humble heart, whenever you remark them." 
And do not imagine in consequence that you 
are guilty of secret sins which you are hiding 
from your confessor. This fear is an artifice 
made use of by the devil to disturb your peac^ 
of mind. 

* You must not be so anxious to tell every- 
thing, nor to run to your superiors to make a 
great ado over each little thing that troubles 
you and that will, perhaps, be forgotten in a 
quarter of an hour. We must learn to bear 
with generosity these trifles which we cannot 
remedy, for ordinarily they are only the con- 



Confession. 45 

sequences of our imperfect nature. That your 
will, feelings, and desires are so inconstant ; 
that you are at one time moody, at another 
cheerful ; that you now have a wish to speak, 
and presently feel the greatest aversion to do 
so; and a thousand similar insignificant mat- 
ters are infirmities to which we are naturally 
prone and will be subject to as long as we live. 
.... It is needless to accuse yourself in con- 
fession of those fleeting thoughts that like 
gnats swarm around you, or of the disgust and 
aversion you feel in the observance of your 
vows and devotional exercises, for these things 
are not sins, they are only inconveniences, 
annoyances." — St. Francis de Sales. "^ 

3. Rest assured that the more closely you 
examine your conscience the less you will 
discover that is worth the trouble of telling. 
Moreover, you must remember that too long 
an examen fatigues the mind and cools the 
fervor of the heart. 

4. To those who in their confessions are 
inclined to confuse involuntarily movements 
with sins, Saint Francis de Sales gives the 
following useful advice: *'You tell me that 
when you have experienced a strong feeling 
of anger, or have had any other temptation. 



46 LigJtt and Peace, 

you are always uneasy if you do not confess it. 
When you are not sure that you have given 
consent to it, I assure you it is unnecessary 
to mention it except it may be in spiritual 
conference, and then not by way of accusation, 
but to obtain advice how to behave another 
time in like circumstances. For if you say : 
I accuse myself of having had movements of 
violent anger for two days, but I did not give 
way to them, you are telling your virtues, not 
your sins. A doubt comes into my mind, 
though, that I may have commited some fault 
during the temptation. You must consider 
maturely if this doubt have any foundation in 
fact, and if so, speak of the matter in confes- 
sion with all simplicity ; otherwise it is better 
not to mention it, as you would do so only for 
your own satisfaction. Even should this 
silence cost you some pain, you must endure 
it as you would any other to which you can 
apply no remedy." 

5. ''Omit from your confessions" — we 
again quote the same Saint — ''those superflu- 
ous accusations which so many persons make 
merely through habit : I have not loved God 
sufficiently ; I have not prayed v/ith enough 
fervor ; I have not loved my neighbor as much 



Confession. 47 

h^ I should ; I have not received the Sacra- 
ments Y/ith all the reverence due to them; and 
others of a like nature. You will readily see 
the reason for this. It is that in speaking 
thus you tell nothing particular that would 
make known to the confessor the state of your 
conscience, and because the most perfect man 
living, as well as all the saints in Paradise 
might say the same things were they making 
a confession." 

6. Those who go to confession frequently 
should always bear in mind what the saintly 
director says in addition : **We are not obliged 
to confess our venial sins, but if we do so it 
must be with a firm resolution to correct them, 
otherwise it is an abuse of the sacrament to 
mention them." 

7. After confession keep your soul in peace, 
and be on your guard — this is a point of card- 
inal importance — against giving access to any 
fear about the validity of the sacrament, either 
as regards the examination of conscience, the 
contrition, or anything else whatsoever. 
These fears are suggestions of the devil whose 
aim it is to instil bitterness into a sacrament 
of consolation and love. 

* ''After confession is not the time to 



48 Light and Peace. 

examine ourselves to find if we have told all 
our sins. We should rather remain attentively 
and in peace near our Lord, with whom we 
have just been reconciled, and thank Him for 
His great mercy. Nor is it necessary subse- 
quently to search out what we may have 
forgotten. We must tell simply all that comes 
to mind ; after that we need think no more 
about it." — St. Francis de Sales. * 

8. It is essential to be sorry for our sins — 
it is not essential to be troubled about them. 
Repentance is an effect of love of God, anxiety 
is an effect of self-love. In the midst of the 
keenest and most sincere repentance we can 
still thank God that He has not permitted us 
to become yet more culpable. Let us promise 
Him a solid amendment, relying for success 
solely upon the assistance of divine grace ; 
and should we fall again a hundred times a 
day, let us never cease to renew the promise 
and the hope. God can in an instant raise up 
from the very stones children to Abraham and 
exalt the most corrupt natures to the highest 
degree of sanctity. At times He does so, but 
usually it is His will that we long continue 
to bear the burden of our infirmity : let us 
not then lose our trust in Him, nor mistake 
a state of trial for a state of reprobation. 



Confession. 49 

* God has, indeed, on some occasions cured 
sinners instantaneously and without leaving 
in them any trace of their previous maladies. 
Such, for instance, was the case with the 
Magdalen. In a moment her soul was changed 
from a sink of corruption into a well-spring 
of perfection, never again to be contaminated 
by sin. But, on the other hand, in several of 
the beloved disciples this same God allowed 
many marks of their evil inclinations to remain 
for some time after their conversion, and this 
for their greater good. Witness Saint Peter, 
who, even after the divine call, was guilty of 
various imperfections and once fell totally and 
miserably by the triple denial of his Lord 
and Master. 

''Solomon says there is no one more insolent 
than a servant who has suddenly become mis- 
tress. ^ A soul that after a long slavery to its 
passions should in a moment subjugate them 
completely, would be in great danger of be- 
coming a prey to pride and vanity. This 
dominion must be gained little by little, step 
by step ; it cost the saints long years of labor 



1 Proverbs, XXX, 21-23: **By three things is the 
earth disturbed ... by a bondwomau, when she is heir 
to her mistress." . . . 
4 



50 Light and Peace. 

to acquire it. Hence the necessity of having 
patience with every one, but first of all with 
yourself." — St. Francis de Sales. * 

* There is no sight more pleasing to Heaven 
than to witness the persevering and deter- 
mined struggle of a soul which, throughout, 
remains united to God by a sincere desire and 
a firm resolution not to offend Him — and 
maintaining this struggle calmly and patiently 
even when it is to all appearance fruitless. 
Such a soul, resigned to retain its defects if it 
is God's will, yet determined notwithstanding 
to fight against them relentlessly, is more 
precious in the eyes of God than if the practice 
of virtue were easy for it and it were in peace- 
ful possession of spiritual gifts. Labor, then, 
in the presence of your heavenly Father ; 
struggle on with strength and courage; but do 
not be too desirous of success, for when this 
craving for self-satisfaction is excessive it is 
sure to be accompanied by vexation and im- 
patience. 

*^ Evil things must not be desired at all," 
says Saint Francis de Sales, ''nor good things 
immoderately." And elsewhere : ''I entreat 
of you, love nothing too ardently, not even 
the virtues, for these we sometimes forfeit by 



Confession. 51 

exceeding the bounds of moderation." And 
again : ^^Wiiy is it that if we happen to fall 
into some imperfection or sin we are surprised 
at ourselves and become disquieted and impa- 
tient ? Undoubtedly it is because we thought 
there was some good in us, and that we were 
resolute and strong. Consequently when we 
find this is not the case, that we have tripped 
and fallen to the earth, we are anxious, an- 
noyed and troubled ; whereas if we realized 
what we truly are, in place of being astonished 
at seeing ourselves down, we should wonder 
rather how we ever remain erect." 

*^We should labor, therefore, without any 
uneasiness as to results. God requires efforts 
on our part, but not success. If we combat 
with perseverance, nothing daunted by our 
defeats, these very defeats will be worth as 
much to us as victories, and even more. But 
beware ! — there is a rock here ! If this conflict 
is not undertaken in perfectly good faith, we 
will try to deceive ourselves as to the genuine- 
ness of our efforts by calling the cowardice 
which caused us to refuse the battle a defeat, 
and by dignifying with the name of trial the 
resii.lts of our own effeminacy and sloth." * 

9. Contrition is essentially an act of the 



52 Light and Peace. 

will by whicli we detest our past sins and re- 
solve not to commit them in future. Hence 
sighs, tears, sensible sorrow are not necessary 
elements of true contrition. Contrition can 
even attain that degree of disinterested per- 
fection which suffices for the justification of a 
sinner, in the midst of the greatest dryness 
and an apparent insensibility. Therefore 
never allow yourself to be disturbed by the 
want of sensible sorrow. 

10. Do not make violent efforts to excite 
your soul to contrition, for these only have 
the effect of producing anxiety, weariness and 
oppression of mind. On the contrary seek to 
become very calm ; say lovingly to God that 
you wish sincerely you had never offended 
Him and that with the assistance of His grace 
you will never offend Him more — that is 
contrition. True contrition is a product of 
love, and love acts in a calm. 

11. ''An act of contrition," says St. Fran- 
cis de Sales, '4s the work of a moment." 
Cast a rapid glance at yourself to see and 
detest your sins, and another towards God to 
promise Him amendment and to express a 
hope of obtaining His assistance in keeping 
this promise. David, one of the most contrite 



Confession. 53 

penitents that ever lived, expressed his act of 
contrition in a single word : Peccavi — I have 
sinned, and by that one word he was justified. 
* ^'You ask how an act of contrition can be 
made in a short time ? I answer that a very 
good one can be made in almost no time. 
Nothing more is needed than to prostrate 
oneself before God in a spirit of humility 
and of sorrow for having offended Him." — 
St. Francis de Sales. * 

12. You say you would wish to have con- 
trition but cannot succeed in feeling it. Saint 
Francis de Sales replies : ''The ability to wish 
is a great power with God, and you thus have 
contrition by the simple fact that you wish to 
have it. You do not feel it indeed at the 
moment, but neither do you see nor feel a fire 
covered with ashes, nevertheless the fire 
exists." The immoderate desire of sensible 
sorrow comes from self-love and self-complac- 
ency. A sorrow that satisfies only God is not 
sufiicient for us, we wish it to satisfy us also ; 
we like to find in our sensibility a flattering 
and reassuring testimony of our love of good. 

13. If God does not grant you the enjoy- 
ment of sensible sorrow, it is in order that 
you may gain the merit of obedience, which 



54 Light and Peace. 

should suffice to reassure you as to your per- 
fect reconciliation. Believe therefore with 
humility, obey with courage, and you will 
earn a twofold reward. The greatest saints 
have at times believed they had neither con- 
trition nor love, but in the midst of this dark- 
ness of the understanding, their will followed 
the torch of obedience with heroic submission. 
14. Do not conclude that you lack con- 
trition or that your confessions are defective, 
because you fall again into the same faults. 
It is very essential to make a distinction in 
regard to relapses. Those that are the off- 
spring of a perverse will which has preserved 
an affection for certain venial sins, takes 
pleasure and wishes to take pleasure in them, 
-—these should not be tolerated ; we must 
vigorously attack them at the very root and 
not allow ourselves any respite until they are 
utterly exterminated. But those relapses that 
proceed from inadvertence, from surprise not- 
withstanding constant vigilance, from the 
infirmity and frailty of our nature, to these we 
shall remain partially subject until our last 
breath. ''It will be doing very well," says 
Saint Francis de Sales, '4f we get free of cer- 
tain faults a quarter of an hour before our 



Confession. 55 

death." And elsewhere: ^*We are obliged 
not only to bear with the failings of our 
neighbor, but likewise with our own and to 
be patient at the sight of our imperfections." 
We must try to correct ourselves, but we should 
do it tranquilly and without anxiety. We 
cannot become angels before the proper time. 
* ''You complain that you still have many 
faults and failings notwithstanding your desire 
for perfection and a pure love of God. I 
assure you that it is impossible to be entirely 
divested of self whilst we are here below. We 
shall always be obliged to bear ourselves about 
with us until God transfers us to heaven ; and 
whilst we do this we carry something that is 
of no value. It is necessary, therefore, to 
have patience, and not to expect to cure our- 
selves in a day of the numerous bad habits 
contracted through past carelessness in regard 
to our spiritual welfare. Pray do not look 
here, there and everywhere : look only at God 
and yourself ; you will never see God devoid 
of goodness, nor yourself without wretched- 
ness and that wretchedness the object of God's 
goodness and mercy." — St. Francis de Sales. 
(After the examination of conscience read the 
Following of Christ, B. III., Chap. XX.) * 



56 Liglit and Peace. 

* Fenelon speaks in the same tone: '^You 
should never be surprised or discouraged at 
your faults. You must bear with them pa- 
tiently yet without flattering yourself or spar- 
ing correction. Treat yourself as you would 
another. As soon as you find you have com- 
mitted a fault make an interior act of self- 
condemnation, turn to God to receive a pen- 
ance, and then tell your fault with simplicity 
to your director. Begin over again to do well 
as though it were the first time, and do not 
grow weary if you have to make a fresh start 
every day. Nothing is more touching to the 
Sacred Heart of Jesus than this humble and 
patient courage. We should not be cast down 
if we have many temptations and even commit 
numerous faults. 'Virtue,' says the Apostle, 
4s made perfect in infirmity.' ^ Spiritual 
progress is effected less by sensible devotion, 
relish and spiritual consolations, than by 
means of interior humiliation and frequent 
recourse to God." * 

15. Habitually add to your confession some 
general accusation of all the sins of your past 
life, or of such of them as occasion you most 



1 II. Cor., xii., 9. 



Confession. 57 

remorse. Say, for example, I accuse myself 
of sins against purity, or charity, or temper- 
ance. You thus preclude the possibility of 
there being lack of sufficient matter for the 
validity of the Sacrament. 

1 6. Banish from your mind the dread of 
having omitted any sins in either your general 
or ordinary confessions, or of not having ex- 
plained their circumstances clearly enough. 
The learned theologian Janin sets forth the 
following rules on the subject: The Church, the 
interpreter of the will of Jesus Christ, requires 
sacramental integrity in confession, and not 
material integrity. The former consists in 
the confession of all the sins we can remember 
after a sufficient examination, the duration of 
which should be regulated by the actual state 
of the conscience. Material integrity would 
require a rigorously complete accusation of all 
the sins we have committed with their number 
and circumstances, without the slightest 
omission. Now sacramental integrity may be 
reasonably exacted since it exceeds no one's 
ability ; whilst material integrity, on the con- 
trary, could not be exacted without the sac- 
rament becoming an impossibility ; for, no 
matter how carefully we make our examina- 



58 Light and Peace. 

tion of conscience, some sin, or some detail 
in regard to number or circumstance, will 
always escape us. In a word, all that the 
Church demands of the faithful is a sincere 
and humble avowal of every sin that can be 
brought to mind after a suitable examen : for 
the rest, she intends good will to supply for 
any defect of memory. 

* Do not be uneasy because you fail to 
remember all your failings in order to tell 
them in confession. This is unnecessary, be- 
cause as you often fall almost without being 
aware of it, so you often get up again without 
perceiving it; just as in the passage you quote 
it is not said that the just man sees or feels 
himself fall seven times a day, but simply that 
he falls seven times a day : in like manner he 
gets up again without noticing particularly 
that he has done so. Hence have no anxiety 
about this, but frankly and humbly confess 
whatever you remember, and commit the rest 
to the tender mercies of Him who puts His 
hand under those who fall without malice 
that they may not be bruised, and raises them 
up again so gently and swiftly that they 
scarcely realize they had fallen. — St. Francis 
de Sales, * 



Confession. 59 

17. By a diligent examination of con- 
science you have thorouglily satisfied all the 
requirements for sacramental integrity ; there- 
fore banisli whatever doubts and fears may 
come to beset you, for they are nothing but 
temptations. 

18. Should you suspect that you failed to 
fulfil these requirements owing to not having 
been particular enough about your examina- 
tion of conscience, you may feel sure that 
your confessor has by prudent interrogations 
supplied for whatever may have been wanting 
on your part. And if he did not question you 
further it was due to the fact that he under- 
stood clearly enough the nature of your sins 
and the state of your soul, and this is the 
object of sacramental accusation. 

19. How great then is the error of those 
poor souls who wish continually to make their 
general confessions over again, either through 
fear of incomplete examination or of in- 
sufficient sorrow ; and how blameworthy the 
weak complaisance of those confessors who 
offer no opposition to their doing so ! If such 
fears were to be listened to, every one would 
be obliged to pass his entire life in making 
and repeating general confessions, for they 



60 Light and Peace. 

would incessantly spring up afresh and even 
the greatest saints would not be exempt from 
them. A sacrament of consolation and love 
would thus be transformed into a perfect tor- 
ture for the soul — an heretical perversion 
anathamatized by the Council of Trent. 

* ''I have found in your general confession 
all the marks of a sincere, good and earnest 
confession. Never have I heard one that 
more thoroughly satisfied me. You may rely 
on this, for in these matters I speak very 
plainly. However, if you really omitted some- 
thing that ought to have been told, consider 
if you did so consciously and voluntarily, in 
which case, if it was a mortal sin or you 
thought it one at the time, you would un- 
doubtedly have to make the confession over 
again. But if it were only a venial sin, or 
though mortal you omitted it out of forgetful- 
ness or some defect of memory, have no 
scruples ; for at my soul's peril, I assure you 
there is no obligation to repeat your confes- 
sion. It will be quite sufficient to mention 
the matter to your ordinary confessor. I will 
answer for this." — St. Francis de Sales. * 

20. It is the teaching of the saints and 
doctors of the Church that when a general 



Conjession. 61 

confession has been made witli a sincere and 
upriglit intention and with a desire to change 
one's life, the penitent should remain in peace 
in regard to it, and not make it over again 
under any pretext whatsoever. Those who do 
otherwise recall to their memory things that 
should be banished from it, and increase the 
trouble of their soul by a too eager desire to 
purify it. For, as Saint Philip de Neri so 
well expresses it : the harder ive sweep, the 
more dust we raise. 

21. Remember, in conclusion, that accord- 
ing to the common opinion of the saints, the 
fear of sin is no longer salutary when it 
becomes excessive. 






VI. 

HOLY COMMUNION. 

Unless ye eat the flesh of the 
Son of Man, and drink His blood, 
ye shall not have life in you. 

(St. John, c. vi., v. 54.) 

And he sent ... to say to those 
who were invited, that they should 
come ; for now all things were 
ready. And they began all at once 
to make excuse. 

(St. Luke, c. xiv., w. 17-18.) 

And if I send them away fasting 
.... they will faint in the way. 
(St. Mark, c. viii., v. 3.) 

My heart is withered ; because I 
forgot to eat my bread. (Ps. ci.) 

I. Frequent communion is the most effica- 
cious of all means to unite us to God. ''He 
that eateth my flesh, ' ' said our divine Saviour, 
''abideth in Me and I in him." ^ 



1 John, vi, 57. 

(62) 



Holy Communion. 63 

2. St. Bernard calls the Holy Eucharist 
the love of loves. Hence you should desire 
to receive it frequently in order to be filled 
with this divine love. 

3. St. Francis de Sales says there are two 
classes of persons who should often receive 
holy communion ; the perfect, to unite them- 
selves more closely to the Source of all per- 
fection, and the imperfect to labor to attain 
perfection ; the strong that they may not be- 
come weak, the weak that they may become 
strong ; the sick that they may be cured, and 
those in health that they may be preserved 
from sickness. You tell me that your imper- 
fections, your weakness, your littleness make 
you unworthy to receive communion frequent- 
ly ; and I assure you it is precisely because 
of these that you ought to receive it frequently 
in order that He who possesses all things 
may give you whatever is wanting to you. 

* The following words on this subject will 
not perhaps be considered by others as giving 
much additional value to the authority of the 
saintly Bishop of Geneva. They do so, how- 
ever, in ours, because they are from the lips 
of a holy religious whose memory will always 
be dear to us — from a man whose last moments 



64 Light and Peace. 

were the occasion of the greatest edification 
it has ever pleased God to accord us. The 
Rev. Father Margottet, a Jesuit, died at Nice, 
April ist, 1835, shortly after his return from 
Portugal where he had suffered a most cruel 
captivity with the courage that faith alone 
can inspire. During the last months of 
his life he took great pleasure in convers- 
ing with a certain young man who visited 
him regularly to be instructed and edified 
by his pious discourse. One day this young 
man confided to him the confusion he felt in 
availing himself of his director's permission 
to receive holy Communion several times 
a week. This was due especially to the 
thought that St. Aloysius, whilst a novice of 
the Society of Jesus, went to Communion on 
Sundays only. ^'Come, come, my dear sir," 
laughingly replied the good Father, *' continue 
your frequent Communions — you need them 
much more than St. Aloysius did." It is 
indeed an error to consider holy Communion 
a reward of virtue, and, in a measure, a guage 
of perfection, whereas it is above all a means 
to attain perfection, and the one pre-existing 
virtue required in order to employ this means 
is the desire to profit by it. Our divine Lord 



Holy Communion. 65 •^ 

did not say : Venite ad 7ne quiperfecti estis— 
Come to Me all ye who are perfect: He said: 
Venite ad me qui lahoratis et onerati estis ^ — 
Come to me all ye who lahor and are burdened. 
(Read Cliaptersxx. and xxi., Part II., of the 
Introduction to a JDevout Life; and Chapters x. 
and xvi. Book IV. of The Imitation, ) 

The spirit of the Chnrch has at all times 
been the same in regard to this important 
subject. Fenelon says in his letter on frequent 
Communion that St. Chrysostom admits of no 
medium between the state of those who are 
in mortal sin and that of the faithful who are 
in a state of grace and communicate every 
day. In vain certain Christians, believing 
themselves purified and just, do no penance as 
sinners and nevertheless abstain from Com- 
munion, because, they say, they are not perfect 
enough to receive it. This intermediate state 
is not only most dangerous for one who wil- 
fully remains in it, but is also injurious to the 
Blessed Sacrament. Far from doing honor to 
the Holy Eucharist by depriving ourselves of 
it, we offend our divine Lord when we decline 
to partake of the Banquet to which He invites 
us. In a word, according to this early Father 

1 Matt, xi., 28. 
5 



66 Light and Peace. 

of the Cliurcli, we ought either to communi- 
cate with those who are in a state of grace, 
or to do penance that we may be united to 
them as soon as possible. 

We will quote the Saint's own words : 
''Many of the faithful are weak and languish- 
ing, many among them sleep. And how, 
you say, does this happen since we receive 
the Blessed Sacrament but once a year ? That 
is precisely the cause of all the trouble ! For 
you imagine that merit consists not so much 
in purity of conscience as in the length of time 
intervening between your Communions. You 
consider no higher mark of respect and honor 
can be paid to this Sacrament than not to 
approach the Holy Table often .... Temerity 
does not consist in approaching the Altar 
frequently, but in approaching it unworthily 
were this but once in an entire life time .... 
Why then regulate the number of Communions 
by the law of time, instead of by purity of 
conscience, which should alone indicate how 
many times to receive ? This divine Mystery 
is nothing more at Easter than at all other 
seasons during which it is celebrated con- 
tinually. It is ever the same, that is to say, 
ever the same gift of the Holy Ghost. Easter 



Holy Communion, 67 

continues throughout the year. You who are 
initiated will understand perfectly what I say. 
Be it Saturday, or Sunday, or the feasts of the 
martyrs, it is always the same Victim, the 
same Sacrifice." ''It was not the will of our 
divine Lord that His Sacrifice should be re- 
stricted by the observance of time." 

Other Fathers of the Church speak in the 
same way of Holy Communion : 

''If it is daily bread," says Saint Ambrose, 
' 'why do you partake of it but once a year? .... 
Receive it every day in order that every day 
you may benefit by it. Live in such a manner 
that you may deserve to receive it every day, 
for he who does not deserve to receive it every 
day will not deserve to receive it at the end of 
the year .... Do you not know that every time 
the Holy Sacrifice is offered, the death, resur- 
rection and ascension of our Lord are renewed 
to the atonement of sin ? And yet you will not 
partake daily of this Bread of Life ! When 
one has received a wound does he not seek a 
remedy ? Sin which holds us captive is our 
wound : our remedy is in this ever adorable 
Sacrament. ' ' 

In order that it may be plainly proved that 
the faithful of the present day have no reason 



68 Light and Peace. 

to act differently in this respect from those of 
the primitive Church, let us see how this an- 
cient discipline has been confirmed in later 
times by the Council of Trent : 

' 'Christians should believe in this Sacrament 
and reverence it v/ith such a firm faith, with 
so much fervor and piety, that they may often 
receive this Super-substantial Bread ; that it 
may be, in truth, the life of their soul and the 
perpetual health of their spirit, and that the 
strength they derive therefrom may enable 
them to pass from the temptations of this 
earthly pilgrimage to the repose of their heav- 
enly fatherland .... The Council would have 
the faithful receive Communion each time 
they assist at Mass, not only spiritually, but 
sacramentally, that they may derive more 
abundant fruit from the Holy Sacrifice." * 

4. The evening before your Communion 
devote some little time to recollection in order 
to ponder the inestimable gift that God is 
about to bestow upon you, and endeavor also 
to excite in your soul the desire and the hope 
of finding therein your delight. 

5. Do not conclude that you derive no 
benefit from Holy Communion because you 
find no perceptible increase in your virtues. 



Holy Communion. 69 

Consider that it at least serves to keep you in 
a state of grace. You give nourisliment to 
your body every day but you do not pretend 
to say that it daily gains in strength. Does 
food appear useless to you on that account ? 
Certainly not ; for, though it fail to augment 
strength, it preserves it by repairing the con- 
stant waste. Now, this is precisely the case 
with the divine Food of our souls. 

* Observe, moreover, that there is no real 
increase in virtue without a corresponding 
growth in humility. Consequently the more 
virtuous you are the less so you will esteem 
yourself ; the worthier you are to approach 
your God, the more profoundly will you feel 
your un worthiness. For man, no matter to 
what degree of virtue he attain, cannot be 
otherwise than weak and sinful here below, 
and he realizes his baseness more and more 
distinctly in proportion to his advancement in 
grace and in light. 

Fenelon speaks as follows on the same sub- 
ject: *' Hitherto you lacked the light to dis- 
cover in your soul many movements of our 
malicious and depraved nature, which now 
begin to reveal themselves to you. In pro- 
portion as light increases we find ourselves 



70 Light and Peace. 

more corrupt than we supposed : but we should 
be neither surprised nor discouraged, for it is 
not that we are in reality worse than we were, — 
on the contrary we are better, — but because 
whilst our sinfulness decreases the light which 
shows it to us increases." * 

6. Do not fear that you are ill-prepared 
for Holy Communion and abuse the Sacrament 
because in receiving it you are cold, indiffer- 
ent, and devoid of feeling. This is a trial 
sent or permitted by God to test your faith 
and to advance you in merit. All that has 
been said in regard to dryness in prayer might 
be repeated here. Try to have an abiding 
desire to feel for the Blessed Eucharist as ardent 
transports of love as were ever experienced by 
the saints. A desire is equivalent before God 
to the thing desired, as I have already quoted 
for you from Saint Gregory the Great ; there- 
fore you should be satisfied with this when 
you can attain nothing higher. Everything 
over and above this is grace, not merit. 

7 . If you dare not receive Holy Communion 
often because you are not worthy, then you 
must never receive it, for you will never be 
worthy. What creature could be worthy to 
receive a God ? Nay more, to follow out this 



Holy Communion. 71 

principle we should have to abandon the 
practice of visiting churches and of speaking 
to God in prayer ; for a miserable, sin-stained 
human being is unfit to enter the House of 
the Lord or to converse with Him. 

**^How many scrupulous Christians do 
we not see languishing for want of this divine 
Food ! They consume themselves with subtle 
speculations and sterile efforts, they fear, they 
tremble, they doubt, and they vainly seek 
for a certainty that cannot be found in this 
life. Sweetness, unction, are not for them. 
They wish to live for God without living by 
Him. They are dry, feeble, exhausted : they 
are close to the Fountain of Living Water 
and yet allow themselves to die of thirst. 
They desire to fulfil all exteriorly, yet do not 
dare to nourish themselves interiorly : they 
wish to carry the burden of the law without 
imbibing its spirit and its consolation from 
prayer and frequent Communion ! " — Fene- 
lon. * 

8. In regard to Holy Communion, there- 
fore, do not confine yourself to a consideration 
of your own unworthiness, but temper this 
with the thought of God's mercy. The 
guests at the symbolic marriage- feast, — a 



72 Light and Peace, 

figure of the Holy Eucharist, — were not the 
great and the rich, but the poor, the blind, 
the lame. Whosoever is clothed in the nuptial 
garment, that is to say, whosoever is in a 
state of grace, is welcome to this banquet. 

9. St. Francis de Sales says that when we 
cannot go to Holy Cmmunion without giving 
annoyance toothers, or without failing against 
duties of charity, justice or order, we should 
be satisfied with spiritual Communion. *' Be- 
lieve me," he adds, *'this mortification, this 
deprivation, will be extremely pleasing to 
God and will advance you greatly in His love. 
One must sometimes take a step backward in 
order to leap the better. ' ' It was not by fre- 
quent Communion that the holy anchorites 
sanctified themselves, but by the exact observ- 
ance of the duties of their calling. Saint 
Paul the Hermit received Holy Communion 
but twice during his long, penitential life, 
nevertheless he was precious in the sight of 
God. A propos of this subject Saint Francis 
de Sales gives us this admirable advice: *^In 
proportion as you are hindered from doing the 
good you desire, do all the more ardently the 
good that you do not desire. You do not like 
to make such or such an act of resignation, 



Holy CGinmunion. 73 

you would prefer to make some other; but 
offer the one you do not like, for it will be of 
far greater value." Saint John the Baptist 
was more intimately united in spirit with our 
Lord than even the Apostles themselves : yet 
he never became one of His followers owing 
to the fact that his vocation required this 
sacrifice on his part and called him elsewhere. 
This is the greatest act of spiritual mortifica- 
tion recorded in the lives of the saints. 

* ''I have often admired the extreme resig- 
nation of Saint John the Baptist, who remained 
so long in the desert, quite near to our Lord, 
without going to see, hear and follow Him. 
And after baptizing Jesus, how could he have 
allowed Him to depart without uniting himself 
to Him with his bodily presence, as he was 
already so united to Him by the ties of affec- 
tion ! Ah ! the divine Precursor knew that 
in his case the Master was best served by 
deprivation of His actual presence. Well, 
my dear daughter, it will be the same with 
you in regard to Holy Communion. I mean 
that for the present God will be pleased if in 
accordance to the wish of the superiors whom 
He has placed over you, you endure the priva- 
tion of His actual presence. It will be a great 



74 Light and Peace. 

consolation to me to know that this advice 
does not disquiet your heart. Rest assured 
that this resignation, this renunciation will be 
exceedingly beneficial to you." — St. Francis 
de Sales. * 

1 1 . Never refrain from receiving the Holy 
Eucharist because you happen to be beset by 
temptations ; this would be to capitulate to 
your enemy without offering any resistance. 
The more combats you have to sustain, the 
greater the necessity of providing yourself 
with the means of defence, and these are to be 
found in the Blessed Sacrament. Go coura- 
geously then and renew your strength with 
the Food of the strong and victory shall be 
yours. 

12. Be careful not to frequent the Holy 
Table because such and such a person does 
so : an imitation common for the most part to 
women's vanity and jealousy, says Saint 
Francis de Sales. It is through love that our 
divine Saviour gives Himself to us in the 
Blessed Sacrament : love alone should lead us 
to receive it. 

13. Holy Communion should not be par- 
taken of with the same frequency by all the 
faithful. All, indeed, must have the same 



Holy Commtmion. 75 

object in view, that is union with God, but 
the same means to attain that object are not 
proper for every one. It is only by obedience 
to the advice of a spiritual director that each 
person can know what is suitable for him, as 
that which would be too little for one might 
be too much for another. 



•^-<J3] 



VII. 

SUNDAYS AND HOLYDAYS. 

The sabbath was made for man, 
and not man for the sabbath. 
(St. Mark, c. II., v. 27.) 

1 . Every day of our life should be employed 
in glorifying God, but there are certain days 
He has particularly appointed whereon to 
receive from us a more special exterior wor- 
ship. These are Sundays and holydays. 

2. It is therefore obligatory upon us to 
sanctify such days. The ordinary means of 
fulfilling this duty are, principally, works of 
charity, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the 
Sacraments, sermons, religious instructions, 
and spiritual reading. 

3. Nevertheless, we should avoid over- 
fatiguing the mind and wearying the body by 
too many exercises of devotion. Excer^s even 
in holy things is wrong, as virtue ends where 
excess begins. All that was said on this sub- 
ject in the chapter on Prayer is equally appli- 
cable here. 

(76) 



Sundays and Holy days. 77 

4. Moreover it is well to know that a 
friendly visit, a walk, a lawful diversion, all 
of wkicli can be referred to God, serve also 
for the sanctification of Sundays and holydays, 
when undertaken with a view to please Him. 
The same may be said of such daily occupa- 
tions as are required of man by his bodily 
needs. 

* ' 'How often we are mistaken in our point of 
view ! I tell you once again it is not the out- 
ward aspect of actions that we must look at, but 
their interior spirit, that is to say, whether or 
not they are according to the will of God. By 
no means regard the nature of the things you 
do, but rather the honor that accrues to them, 
worthless as they are in themselves, from the 
fact that God wishes them, that they are in 
the order of His Providence and disposed by 
His infinite wisdom. In a word, if they are 
pleasing to God, and recognized as being so, 
to whom should they be displeasing ? " — 
Saint Francis de Sales. * 

5. These things are said for the instruc- 
tion of those who are eager and anxious on 
Sundays and holydays of obligation to heap 
devotion upon devotion and who make a crime 
of everj'thing that is not an exterior act of 



78 Light and Peac6. 

piety. 'Miey apply themselves, it seems, to 
the material observance of the sabbath, follow- 
ing the superstitious custom of the Pharisees, 
instead of peacefully sanctifying the Lord's 
day with that sweet and holy liberty of spirit 
which our divine Saviour teaches in the 
Gospel. Too much dissipation and over long 
prayers are two extremes each of which it is 
equally necessary to avoid. 

6. Should it happen that you are obliged 
to travel on Sunday or to attend to some un- 
forseen business, do not be disquieted about 
the impossibility of fulfilling your customary 
devout exercises. Replace these with pious 
ejaculations, which, as I have already said, 
can in case of necessity supply for the omission 
of all other prayers. 

7. Remark, in conclusion, that to assist at 
a low Mass suffices strictly speaking for the 
sanctification of the Sunday or holy day . Even 
this may be omitted by those persons whom 
duty obliges to attend the sick, to mind the 
house, or to take care of young children ; for 
these being works of justice and charity and 
good in themselves, may, when performed 
with a pure intention and accompanied by 



Sundays and Holydays. 79 

ejaculatory prayers, equal and even surpass in 
value all exterior practices of devotion. 

I do not speak at all of the sick, for by their 
sufferings they can sanctify every day and 
make each one equal to the greatest festival. 

* ' 'Worldly notions are forever blending 
with our thoughts and throwing them out of 
perspective. In the house of an earthly 
prince it is not so honorable to be a scullion 
in the kitchen as to be a gentleman-in- waiting. 
But it is different in the house of God, where 
those in the humblest positions are oft-times 
the most worthy ; for although they labor and 
drudge it is done for the love of God and in 
fulfilment of His divine will ; and the true 
value of our actions is fixed by this divine will 
and not by their exterior character. There- 
fore he who truly loves God's will in the 
accomplishment of his duties, does not allow 
his affections to become engaged in any of his 
spiritual exercises ; and so, if sickness or acci- 
dent interfere with them he experiences no 
regret. I do not say indeed that he does 
not love his devotions, but that he is not 
attached to them." — Saint Francis de Sales. * 

* ''If you have a sincere regard for the vir- 
tues of obedience and submission, I wish that, 



80 Light and Peace. 

should justice or charity demand it, you would 
forego your pious exercises, whicli would be a 
sort of obedience, and that this omission 
should be supplied by love. I told you on 
another occasion : the less we live according 
to our own liking, and the less option we have 
in our actions, the more goodness and solidity 
will there be in our devotion. It is right and 
proper sometimes to leave our Lord in order 
to oblige others for love of Him." — Saint 
Francis de Sales. * 



VIII. 

SPIRITUAL READING. 

Blessed is the man whom Thou 
shall instruct, O Lord, and shalt 
teach him out of Thy Law. 

(Ps. XCIII, V. 12.) 

All scripture divinely inspired, 
is profitable to teach, to reprove, 
to correct, to instruct in justice. 
(S. P. Timoth., Ep. II, iii, 16.) 

1. Spiritual reading is to the soul what 
food is to the body. Be careful, therefore, to 
select such books as will furnish your soul 
with the best nourishment. I would recom- 
mend you to become familiar especially with 
the works of Saint Francis de Sales. 

2. When the choice of reading matter is 
made by the advice of a spiritual director the 
teaching it contains should be looked upon as 
coming from the mouth of God. 

3. Do not affect those lives of the Saints 
in which the supernatural and marvellous 
predominate. The devout imagination be- 
comes inflamed by such reading and is imbued 

6 (81) 



82 Light and Peace. 

with, vain and useless desires : it leads some 
to aspire to the revelations of Saint Bridget 
or the raptures of Saint Joseph of Cuper- 
tino, others to imitate the mortifications of the 
Stylites ; and thus by losing time in desiring 
extraordinary graces, they neglect, to their 
great detriment, ordinary duties and real 
obligations. Take great care, then, not to 
allow yourself to be absorbed in those wonder- 
ful characteristics of the saints which we 
should be content to admire ; give preference 
rather to their simple and interior virtues, for 
these alone are imitable for us. 

* ''We ought not to wish for extraordinary 
things, as, for example, that God would take 
away our heart, as He did with Saint Catherine 
of Sienna's, and give us His in return. But 
we should desire that our poor hearts no longer 
live save in subjection to the Heart of our lov- 
ing Saviour, and this will be the best way of 
imitating Saint Catherine, for we shall thus 
become meek, humble and charitable .... True 
holiness consists in love of God, and not in 
foolish imaginations and dreamings that nour- 
ish self-love whilst they undermine obedience 
and humility. The desire to have ecstacies 
and visions is a deception. lyct us turn rather 



Spiritual Reading. 83 

to the practice of true meekness and submis- 
siveness, of self-renunciation and docility, of 
ready compliance with, the wishes of others. 
Thus we shall emulate the saints in what is 
more real and more admirable for us than 
ecstacies. — St. Francis de Sales. * 

4. Use still greater precautions in regard 
to ascetical works. Many of these are care- 
lessly written, confound precepts with coun- 
sels, badly define the virtues by not showing 
the limits beyond which they become extrav- 
agances, and entertain the reader with trifling 
and purely exterior practices that are more apt 
to flatter self-love than to reform the heait. 

5. It has been remarked very justly by a 
learned theologian that the ignorance and in- 
discreet zeal of certain writers of ascetical 
books have furnished the heretics of later 
times with arms to attack our holy religion 
and to turn it into ridicule. 

6. A judicious author expresses himself 
thus on the same subject : *^In order to write 
on spiritual matters it is not enough to have 
great piety, — great learning is also necessary. 
A man actuated by the best motives in the 
world may yet have strange delusions, and 
feed his imagination with devout extravagan- 



84 Light and Peace. 

ces." An author should be equally well 
versed in theory and experienced in practice, 
otherwise he will err either in regard to princi- 
ples or to their application. There is a well 
knov/n saying generally attributed to Saint 
Thomas : '^If a man be good and holy let him 
pray for us ; if he be learned too, then let him 
teach us . " It is essential , in matters of religion 
especially, to give none but true and precise 
ideas, or else they will do more harm than 
good. Doctrines that are not exact create 
scruples in weak souls and invite the criticisms 
of intelligent Christians, whilst they excite 
the railleries of free-thinkers and furnish argu- 
ments to unbelievers. 

7. Almost every day we find ascetical 
works published which contain many inac- 
curacies of the kind described. Exercise great 
care, therefore, in the selection of this kind of 
reading or you may injure your soul instead of 
sanctifying it. The safest course is to consult 
your director on the subject. 



PART SECOND. 

INTERIOR LIFE. 

IX. 
HOPE. 

Casting all your solicitude upon 
Him for He hath care of you. 
(St. Petr.,Bp. I.,c.V.,v. 7.) 

Let Thy mercy descend upon 
us according to the trust we have 
placed in Thee. 

(Cant. Saint Ambrose.) 

1. *' Blessed is the man who hopes in the 
Lord," says the Holy Spirit. The weakness 
of onr souls is often attributable to lukewarm- 
ness in regard to the Christian virtue of hope. 

2. Hold fast to this great truth : he who 
hopes for nothing will obtain nothing ; he who 
hopes for little will obtain little ; he who hopes 
for all things will obtain all things. 

3. The mercy of God is infinitely greater 
than all the sins of the world. We should 
not, then, confine ourselves to a consideration 
of our own wretchedness, but rather turn our 
thoughts to the contemplation of this divine 
attribute of mercy. 

(85) 



86 Light and Peace. 

4 . * * What do you f ear ? " says Saint Thomas 
of Villanova : '^this Judge whose condemna- 
tion you dread is the same Jesus Christ who 
died upon the Cross in order not to condemn 
you." 

5. Sorrow, not fear, is the sentiment our 
sins should awaken in us. When Saint Peter 
said to his divine Master : ''''Depart from me^ 
Lord^jor I am a sinful man^^^ what did 
our Saviour reply? ^''Noli timere, — fear not." ^ 
Saint Augustine remarks that in the Holy 
Scriptures we always find hope and love pre- 
ferred to fear. 

6. Our miseries form the throne of the 
divine mercy, we are told by Saint Francis de 
Sales, for if in the world there were neither 
sins to pardon, nor sorrows to soothe, nor 
maladies of the soul to heal, God would not 
have to exercise the most beautiful attribute 
of His divine essence. This was our Lord's 
reason for saying that He came into the world 
not for the just but for sinners. 2 

7. Assuredly our faults are displeasing to 
God, but He does not on their account cease 
to cherish our souls. 



1 Saint lyuke, vv. 8-10. 

2 Luke v., 32. Mark II., 17, Matthew IX., 13. 



Hope. 87 

* It is unnecessary to observe that this 
applies only to such faults as are due to the 
frailty inherent in our nature, and against 
which an upright will, sustained by divine 
grace, continually struggles. A perverse will, 
without which there can be no mortal sin, 
alienates us from God and renders us hateful 
in His eyes as long as we are subject to it. 
At the feast spoken of in the Gospel, the King 
receives with love the poor, the blind, and the 
lame who are clothed with the nuptial gar- 
ment, — that is to say, all those whom a desire 
to please God maintains in a state of grace 
notwithstanding their natural defects and 
frailty : but his rigorous justice displays itself 
against him who dares to appear there without 
this garment. This distinction, found every- 
where throughout the Gospels, is essential in 
order to inspire us with a tender confidence 
when we fall, without diminishing our horror 
for deliberate sins. * 

A good mother is afflicted at the natural 
defects and infirmities of her child, but she 
loves him none the less, nor does she refuse 
him her compassion or her aid. Far from it; 
for the more miserable and suffering and de- 



88 Light and Peace, 

formed he may be the greater is her tenderness 
and solicitude for him. 

8. We have, says Saint Paul, a good and 
indulgent High-Priest who knows how to com- 
passionate our weakness, Jesus Christ, who 
has been pleased to become at once our Brother 
and our Mediator. ^ 

9. Do not forfeit your peace of mind by 
wondering what destiny awaits you in eternity. 
Your future lot is in the hands of God, and it 
is much safer there than if in your own keep- 
ing. 

10. The immoderate fear of hell, in the 
opinion of Saint Francis de Sales, can not be 
cured by arguments, but by submission and 
humility. 

1 1 . Hence it was that Saint Bernard, when 
tempted by the devil to a sin of despair, 
retorted: ''I have not merited heaven, I 
know that as well as you do, Satan ; but I also 
know that Jesus Christ, my Saviour, has 
merited it for me. It was not for Himself 
that He purchased so many merits, — but for 
me : He cedes them to me, and it is by Him 
and in Him that I shall save my soul. ' ' 



1 Kpist. St. Paul to the Hebrews. 



Hope. 89 

12. Far from allowing yourself to be de- 
jected by fear and doubt, raise your desires 
rather to great virtues and to the most sublime 
perfection. God loves courageous souls, Saint 
Theresa assures us, provided they mistrust 
their own strength and place all their reliance 
upon Him. The devil tries to persuade you 
that it is pride to have exalted aspirations and 
to wish to imitate the virtues of the saints ; 
but do not permit him to deceive you by this 
artifice. He will only laugh at you if he suc- 
ceed in making you fall into weakness and 
irresolution. 

To aspire to the noblest and highest ends 
gives firmness and perseverance to the soul. 
(Read The Imitation, B. HI, C. XXX.) 



X. 

THE PRESENCE OF GOD. 

Walk before Me and be per- 
fect. (Genesis, c. XVII, v. 1.) 

I have lifted up my eyes to 
the mountains, from whence 
help shall come to me. 

(Psalm CXX, v. 1.) 

1. The constant remembrance of God's 
presence is a means of perfection tliat Almighty- 
God Himself prescribed to the Patriarch Abra- 
ham. But this practice must be followed 
gently and without effort or disturbance of 
mind. The God of love and peace wishes 
that all we do for Him should be done lovingly 
and peacefully. 

2. Only in heaven shall we be able to think 
actually and uninterruptedly of God. In this 
world to do so is an impossibility, for we are at 
every moment distracted by our occupations, 
our necessities, our imagination. We but 
exhaust ourselves by futile efforts if we try to 
lead before the proper time an existence simi- 
lar to that of the angels and saints. 

(90) 



The Presence of God, 91 

3. Frequently tlie fear comes to you that 
you have failed to keep yourself in the pres- 
ence of God, because you have not thought of 
Him. This is a mistaken idea. You can, 
without this definite thought, perform all 
your actions for love of God and in His pres- 
ence, by virtue of the intention you had in 
beginning them. Now, to act is better than 
to think. Though the doctor may not have 
the invalid in mind while he is preparing the 
medicine that is to restore him to health, 
nevertheless it is for him he is working, and 
he is more useful to his patient in this way 
than if he contented himself with merely 
thinking of him. In like manner when you 
fulfil your domestic or social duties, when you 
eat or walk, devote yourself to study or to 
manual labor, though it be without definitely 
thinking of God, you are acting for Him, and 
this ought to suffice to set your mind at rest 
in regard to the merit of your actions. Saint 
Paul does not say that we must eat, drink and 
labor with an actual remembrance of God's 
presence, but with the habitual intention of 
glorifying Him and doing His holy will. We 
fulfil this condition by making an offering 
each morning to God of all the actions of the 



92 Light and Peace. 

day and renewing the act interiorly whenever 
we can remember to do so. 

4. For this purpose, make frequent use of 
ejaculatory prayers. We have already spoken 
of them. Accustom yourself to make these 
pious aspirations naturally and without effort, 
and let them for the most part be expressive 
of confidence and love. 

5. Should it happen that a considerable 
space of time elapses without your having 
thought distinctly of God or raised your heart 
to Him by any loving ejaculation, do not 
allow this omission to worry you. The servant 
has performed his duty and deserves well of 
his master when he has done his will, even 
though he may not have been thinking of him 
the while. Always bear in mind the fact 
that it is better to work for God than to think 
of Him. Thought has its highest spiritual 
value when it results in action : action is 
meritorious in itself by virtue of the good 
intention which preceded it. 



XI. 

HUMILITY. 

If I glorify myself, my glory 
is nothing. 

(St.John, c. VIII, V. 54.) 

For behold I was born in in- 
iquities : and in sins did my 
mother conceive me. 

(Psalm L., V. 7.) 

1 . Few persons have a correct idea of this 
virtue. It is frequently confused with servility 
or littleness. 

2. To attribute to God what is God's, that 
is to say everything that is good, and to our- 
selves what is ours, that is to say, everj^thing 
that is evil : these are the essential character- 
istics of true humility. 

* Hence it would appear at first sight that 
simple good sense ought to suffice to make 
men humble. Such would be the case were 
it not that our faculties have been impaired 
and vitiated in their very source by pride, 
that direful and ineffaceable consequence of 
original sin. The first man, a creature owing 

(93) 



94 Light and Peace, 

his existence directly to God, was bound to 
dedicate it entirely to Him and to pay con- 
tinual homage for it is as for all the other gifts 
he had received. This was a duty of simple 
justice. The day whereon he asserted a 
desire to be independent, he caused an utter 
derangement in the relations of the creature 
with his Creator. Pride, that tendency to 
self-sufficiency, to refer to self the use of the 
faculties received from God — pride, introduced 
into the soul of the first man by a free act of his 
will, has attached itself as an indelible stigma 
to the souls of all his descendants, and has 
become forevermore a part of their nature. 
Thence comes this inclination, ever springing 
up afresh, to be independent, to be something 
of ourselves, to desire for ourselves esteem, 
affection and honor, despite the precepts of the 
divine law, the claims of justice and the warn- 
ings of reason ; and thus it is that the whole 
spiritual life is but one long and painful con- 
flict against this vicious propensity. Divine 
grace though sustaining us in the combat 
never gives us a complete victory, for the 
struggle must endure until death, — the closing 
chastisement of our original degradation and 
the only one that can obliterate the last 



Humility. 95 

traces thereof. (See Imitation^ B. III., Ch. 
XIII.-XXII.) * 

3. As God drew from nothingness every- 
thing that exists, in like manner does He wish 
to lay the foundations of our spiritual perfec- 
tion upon the knowledge of our nothingness. 
Saint Bonaventure used to say : Provided 
God he all^ what matters it that I am nothing! 

4. When a Christian who is truly humble 
commits a fault he repents but is not disqui- 
eted, because he is not surprised that what 
is naught but misery, weakness and corrup- 
tion, should be miserable, weak and cor- 
rupt. He thanks God on the contrary that 
his fall has not been more serious. Thus 
Saint Catherine of Genoa, whenever she found 
she had been guilty of some imperfection, 
would calmly exclaim : Another weed from my 
garden ! This peaceful contemplation of our 
sinfulness was considered very important by 
Saint Francis de Sales also, for he says : ^'Let 
us learn to bear with our imperfections if we 
wish to attain perfection, for this practice 
nourishes the virtue of humility." 

5. Some persons have the erroneous idea 
that in order to be humble they m.ust not 
recognize in themselves any virtue or talent 



96 Light and Peace. 

whatsoever. The reverse is the case accord- 
ing to Saint Thomas, for he says it is necessary 
to realize the gifts we have received that we 
may return thanks for them to Him from 
whom we hold them. To ignore them is to 
fail in gratitude towards God, and to neglect 
the object for which He gave them to us. All 
that we have to do is to avoid the folly of 
taking glory to ourselves because of them. 
Mules, asses and donkeys may be laden with 
gold and perfumes and yet be none the less 
dull and stupid animals. The graces we have 
received, far from giving us any personal 
claims, only serve to increase our debt to Him 
who is their source and their donor. 

6. Praise is naturally more pleasing to us 
than censure. There is nothing sinful in this 
preference, for it springs from an instinct of 
our human nature of which we cannot entirely 
divest ourselves. Only the praise must be 
always referred to Him to whom it is due, 
that is to say, to God ; for they are His gifts 
that are praised in us as we are but their 
bearers and custodians and shall one day have 
to render Him an account for them in accord- 
ance with their value. 



Humility. ^7 

7. The soul that is most humble will also 
have the greatest courage and the most gen- 
erous confidence in God; the more it distrusts 
itself, the more it will trust in Him on whom 
it relies for all its strength, saying with Saint 
Paul : I can do all things in Him who 
strengtheneth me. ^ Saint Thomas clearly 
proves that true Christian humility, far from 
debasing the soul, is the principle of every- 
thing that is really noble and generous. He 
who refuses the work to which God calls him 
because of the honor and ^clat that accom- 
pany it, is not humble but mistrustful and 
pusillanimous. We shall find in obedience 
light to show us with certainty that to which 
we are called and to preserve us from the illu- 
sions of self-love and of our natural inclina- 
tions. 

* * 'We should be actuated by a generous and 
noble humility, a humility that does nothing 
in order to be praised and omits nothing that 
ought to be done through fear of being 
praised." — Saint Francis de Sales. * 

8. It is even good and sometimes necessary 
to make known the gifts we have received 



2 St. Paul to the Phillippians, IV., 13. 

7 



98 LigM and Peace. 

from God and tlie good works of which divine 
grace has made us the instruments, when this 
manifestation can conduce to the glory of His 
name, the welfare of the Church, or the edifi- 
cation of the faithful. It was for this three- 
fold object that Saint Paul spoke of his apos- 
tolic labors and supernatural revelations. 






XII. 
RESIGNATION. 

Yea, Father : because so it 
has pleased Thee. 

(St. Luke, c. X., V. 21.) 

O my Father, if it be possi- 
ble, let this chalice pass from 
me. Nevertheless not as I 
will, but as Thou wilt. 
(St. Matthew,c. XXVI., v. 39.) 

1. We should recognize and adore the will 
of God in everything that happens to us. 
The malice of men, nay of the devil himself, 
can cause nothing to befall us except what 
is permitted by God. Our divine Lord has 
declared that not a hair of our heads can fall 
unless by the will of our Heavenly Father. ^ 

2. Therefore in every condition painful to 
nature, whether you are afflicted by sickness, 
assailed by temptations, or tortured by the 
injustice of men, consider the divine will and 
say to God with a loving and submissive heart: 
Fiat voluntas tua — Thy will be done : O my 



1 Matt. X., 30. 

(99) 



100 Light and Peace, 

Saviour, do with me what Thou wiliest, as 
Thou wiliest, and when Thou wiliest. 

3. By this means we render supportable 
the severest pain and the most trying cir- 
cumstances. ''Do you not feel the infinite 
sweetness contained in that one sentence, the 
will of GodP^ asks Saint Mary Magdalen de 
Pazzi. Like unto the wood shown to Moses, 
that drew from the water all its bitterness, it 
sweetens whatever is bitter in our lives. 

4. Without this practice, so comformable 
to faith, and without the light and strength 
that result from it, the pains and afflictions of 
life would become unbearable. This is what 
Saint Philip de Neri meant when he said : It 
rests with man to place himself even in this 
life either in heaven or in hell : he who suffers 
tribulations with patience enjoys celestial 
peace in advance ; he who does not do so has 
a foretaste of the torments of hell. 

5. Not only is it God who sends or permits 
our troubles, but He does so for the good of 
our souls and for our spiritual progress. Do 
not, then, make a matter of complaint that 
which should be a motive for gratitude. 

6. Saint Francis de Sales says that the 
cross is the royal door to the temple of sane- 



Resignation. 101 

tity, and the only one by whicli we can enter 
it. One moment spent upon the cross is 
therefore more conducive to our spiritual 
advancement than the anticipated enjoyment 
of all the delights of heaven. The happiness 
of those who have reached their destination 
consists in the possession of God : to suffei* 
for the love of Him is the only true happiness 
which those still on the way can expect to 
attain. Our Lord declared that those who 
mourn during this exile are blessedy for they 
shall be consoled eternally in their celestial 
fatherland.^ 

7. Notice that I say, to suffer for the love 
of God^ for, as Saint Augustine remarks, no 
person can love suffering in itself. That is 
contrary to nature, and moreover, there would 
no longer be any suffering if we could accept 
it with natural relish. But a resigned soul 
loves to suffer, that is she loves the virtue of 
patience and ardently desires the merits that 
result from the practice of it. A calm and 
submissive longing to be delivered from our 
cross if such be the will of God, is not incon- 
sistent with the most perfect resignation. 



1 Matt. X., 30:— Luke XII., 7.— ''Blessed are they that 
mourn^ for they shall be comforted, ' ' 



102 Light and Peace. 

This desire is a natural instinct which super- 
natural grace regulates, moderates, and teaches 
us to control, but which it never entirely 
destroys. Our divine Saviour Himself, to 
show that He was truly man, was pleased to 
feel it as we do, and prayed that the chalice 
of His Passion might be spared Him. Hence 
you are not required to be stolidly indifferent 
or to arm yourself with the stern insensibility 
of the Stoics; that would not be either resigna- 
tion, or humility, or any virtue whatsoever. 
The essential thing is to suffer with Christian 
patience and generous resignation everything 
that is naturally displeasing to us. This is 
what both reason and faith prescribe. 

* The Redeemer of the World seems to 
wish to show us in His Agony the degree of 
perfection which the weakness of human 
nature can attain amidst the anguish of sor- 
row. In the inferior portion of the soul 
where the faculty of feeling resides, instinctive 
repugnance to suffering, humble prayer for 
relief if it please God to accord it ; and in the 
superior portion of the soul where the will 
resides, entire resignation if this consolation 
be denied. A desire for more than this, unless 
called to it by a special grace, v/ould be fool- 



Resignation, 103 

isli pride, as we should thus attempt to change 
the conditions of our nature, whereas our 
duty is to accept them in order to combat them 
and to suffer in so doing. (See Imitation^ 
B. III., Ch. XVIII-XIX.; 

In the following terms Saint Francis de 
Sales proposes to us this same example of our 
Saviour's resignation during His agony : 
''Consider the great dereliction our Divine 
Master suffered in the Garden of Olives. See 
how this beloved Son, having asked for con- 
solation from His loving Father and knowing 
that it was not His will to grant it, thinks no 
more about it, no longer craves or looks for it, 
but, as though He had never sought it, vali- 
antly and courageously completes the work of 
our redemption. Let it be the same with you. 
If your Heavenly Father sees fit to deny you 
the consolation you have prayed for, dismiss 
it from your mind and animate your courage 
to fulfil your work upon the cross as if you 
were never to descend from it nor should ever 
again see the atmosphere of your life pure 
and serene." (Read The Imitation. B. III., 
Chapters XI and XV.) 

The same Saint also gives us some sublime 
lessons in resignation applied to the trials and 



104 Liglit and Peace. 

temptations that beset the spiritual life. He 
draws them from this great and simple thought 
that serves as foundation for the Exercises of 
Saint Ignatius, namely, that salvation being 
the sole object of our existence, and all the 
attendant circumstances of life but means for 
attaining it, nothing has any absolute value; 
and that the only way of forming a true estimate 
of things is to consider in how far they are 
calculated to advance or retard the end in 
view. Accordingly, what difference does it 
make if we attain this end by riches or pov- 
erty, health or sickness, spiritual consolation or 
aridity, by the esteem or contempt of our 
fellow-men? So say faith and reason; but 
human nature revolts against this indifference, 
as it is well it should, else how could we acquire 
merit? Hence there is a conflict on this point 
between the flesh and the spirit, and it is this 
conflict that for a Christian is called life. (On 
this subject read The Imitation^ B. II., Ch. 
XI. ; and B. III. ,Ch. XVIII. , XIX. , XXXVII. , 
XIvIX., L. and the prayer at the end of Ch. 
XXVII.) 

''Would to God," he says elsewhere, 
speaking on the same subject, ''that we did 
not concern ourselves so much about the 



Besignation. 105 

road whereon we journey, but rather would 
keep our eyes fixed on our Guide and upon 
that blessed country v/hither He is conduct- 
ing us. What should it matter to us if it 
be through deserts or pleasant fields that we 
walk, provided God be with us and we be 
advancing towards heaven? .... In short, for 
the honor of God, acquiesce perfectly in His 
divine will, and do not suppose that you can 
serve Him better in any other way ; for no one 
ever serves Him well who does not serve Him 
as He wishes. Now He wishes that you 
serve Him without relish, Avithout feeling, 
nay, with repugnance and perturbation of 
spirit. This service does not afford you any 
satisfaction, it is true, but it pleases Him; it 
is not to your taste, but it is to His. . . . Mor- 
tify yourself then cheerfully, and in propor- 
tion as you are prevented from doing the good 
you desire, do all the more ardently that 
which you do not desire. You do not wish to 
be resigned in this case, but you will be so in 
some other : resignation in the first instance 
will be of much greater value to you .... In 
fine, let us be what God wishes, since we are 
entirely devoted to Him, and would not wish 
to be anything contrary to His will ; for were 



106 Light and Peace. 

we the most exalted creatures under heaven, of 
what use would it be to us, if we were not in 
accord with the will of God? .... 

And again: ''You should resign yourself 
perfectly into the hands of God. When you 
have done your best towards carrying out 
your design (of becoming a religious) He will 
be pleased to accept everything you do, even 
though it be something less good. You can- 
not please God better than by sacrificing to 
Him your will, and remaining in tranquillity, 
humility and devotion, entirely reconciled 
and submissive to His divine will and good 
pleasure. You will be able to recognize these 
plainly enough when you find that notwith- 
standing all your efforts it is impossible for 
you to gratify your wishes. 

For God in His infinite goodness sometimes 
sees fit to test our courage and love by depriv- 
ing us of the tilings which it seems to us 
would be advantageous to our souls ; and if 
He finds us very earnest in their pursuit, yet 
humble, tranquil and resigned to do without 
them if He wishes us to. He will give us more 
blessings than we should have had in the pos- 
session of what we craved. God loves those 



Resignation. 107 

who at all times and in all circumstances can 
say to Him simply and heartily : Thy will he 
done.'^^ * 



XIII. 

SCRUPLES. 

Having therefore such hope, 
we use much confidence. 
(St. Paul, II. Cor., c. III., v. 12.) 

Fear is not in charity: but 
perfect charity casteth out fear, 
because fear hath pain. And 
he that feareth is not perfect 
in charity. 
(St. John, I. Kpist.,c. IV.,v. 18.) 

1 . There are persons who look upon scru- 
pulosity as a virtue, confounding it with deli- 
cacy of conscience, whereas it is, on the con- 
trary, not only a defect but one of a most 
dangerous character. The devout and learned 
Gerson says that a scrupulous conscience often 
does more injury to the soul than one that is 
too lax and remiss. 

2. Scruples warp the judgment, disturb 
the peace of the soul, beget mistrust of the 
Sacraments and estrangement from them, and 
impair the health of body and mind. How 
many unfortunates have begun by scrupulosity 
and ended in insanity ! How many, more 

(108) 



Scruples. 109 

unfortunate still, have begun by scruples and 
ended in laxity and impiety ! Shun then 
this insiduous poison, so deadly in its effects 
on true piety, and say with Saint Joseph of 
Cupertino : Away with sadness and scruples; 
I will not have them in my house. 

3. Scrupulosity is an unreasonable fear of 
sin in matters where there is not even material 
for sin. But the victim does not call his 
doubts and fears scruples, for he would not be 
tormented by them if he believed he could 
give them that name. He should, however, 
place implicit reliance in the opinion of his 
spiritual guide when he tells him they are 
such and that he must not allow himself to be 
influenced by them. 

4. In all his actions a scrupulous person 
sees only an uninterrupted series of sins, and 
in God nothing but vengeance and anger. He 
ought, therefore, to consider almost exclu- 
sively the attribute of the divine Master by 
which He most delights to manifest Himself, 
mercy y and to make it the constant subject of 
his thoughts, meditations and affections. 

* **We should do everything from love and 
nothing from constraint. It is more essential 



110 Light and Peace. 

to love obedience than to fear disobedience. ^ ' — 
Saint Francis de Sales. * 

5. There is but one remedy for scruples 
and that is entire and courageous obedience. 
*4t is a secret pride," says Saint Francis de 
Sales, '^ that entertains and nourishes scruples, 
for the scrupulous person adheres to his opin- 
ion and inquietude in spite of his director's 
advice to the contrary. He alv^ays persuades 
himself in justification of his disobedience 
that some new and unforseen circumstance 
has occurred to which this advice cannot be ap- 
plicable. But submit' ' , adds the Saint, ^ * with- 
out other reasoning than this : I should ohey^ 
and you will be delivered from this lamentable 
malady. 

6. By sadness and anxiety the children of 
God do a great injury to their Heavenly 
Father. They thereby seem to bear witness 
that there is little happiness to be found in 
the service of a Master so full of love and 
mercy, and to give the lie to the words of Him 
who said : ''Come unto Me all you that labor 
and are heavily burdened and I will refresh 
you." 

* ''Woe to that narrow and self-absorbed 
soul that is always fearful, and because of fear 



Scniples. Ill 

lias no time to love and to go generously for- 
ward. O my God ! I know it is your wish 
that the heart that loves you should be broad 
and free ! Hence I shall act with confidence 
like to the child that plays in the arms of its 
mother ; I shall rejoice in the Lord and try to 
make others rejoice ; I shall pour forth my 
heart without fear in the assembly of the 
children of God. I wish for nothing but 
candor, innocence and joy of the Holy Ghost. 
Far, far from me, O my God, be that sad and 
cowardly wisdom which is ever consumed in 
self, ever holding the balance in hand in order 
to weigh atoms ! . . . . Such lack of simplicity 
in the soul's dealings with Thee is truly an 
outrage against Thee : such rigor imputed to 
Thee is unworthy of Thy paternal heart. ^' — 
Fenelon. * 



XIV. 

INTERIOR PEACE. 

Martha, Martha, thou art 
careful, and art troubled about 
many things. 

(vSt. I^uke, c. X.,v. 41.) 

Always active, always at rest. 
(St. Augustine.) 

I. Be on your guard lest your zeal degen- 
erate into anxiety and eagerness. Saint 
Francis de Sales was a most pronounced enemy 
of these two defects. They cause us to lose 
sight of God in our actions and make us very 
prone to impatience if the slightest obstacle 
should interfere with our designs. It is only 
by acting peacefully that we can serve the 
God of peace in an acceptable manner. 

* Do not let us suffer our peace to be dis- 
turbed by precipitation in our exterior actions. 
When our bodies or minds are engaged in any 
work, we should perform it peacefully and 
with composure, not prescribing for ourselves 
a definite time to finish it, nor being too 
anxious to see it completed.'' — Scupoli. * 

(112) 



Interior Peace. 113 

2. Martha was engaged in a good work 
when she prepared a repast for our divine 
lyord, nevertheless He reproved her because 
she performed it with anxiety and agitation. 
This goes to show, says Saint Francis de 
Sales, that it is not enough to do good, the 
good must moreover be done well, that is to 
say, with love and tranquillity. If one turn 
the spinning-wheel too rapidly it falls and the 
thread breaks. 

3. Whenever we are doing well we are 
always doing enough and doing it sufficiently 
fast. Those persons who are restless and 
impetuous do not accomplish any more and 
what they do is done badly. 

4. Saint Francis de Sales was never seen 
in a hurry no matter how varied or numerous 
might be the demands made upon his time. 
When on a certain occasion some surprise was 
expressed at this he said : **You ask me how 
it is that although others are agitated and flur- 
ried I am not likewise uneasy and in haste. 
What would you? I was not put in this 
world to cause fresh disturbance : is there not 
enough of it already without my adding to it 
by my excitability?" 

5. However, do not on the other hand sue- 



114 Light and Peace. 

cumb to sloth and indifference. All extremes 
are to be avoided. Cultivate a tranquil activity 
and an active tranquillity. 

6. In order to acquire tranquillity in action 
it is necessary to consider carefully what we 
are capable of accomplisbing and never to 
undertake more than that. It is self-love, ever 
more anxious to do much than to do well, 
which urges us on to burden ourselves with 
great undertakings and to impose upon our- 
selves numerous obligations. It maintains 
and nourishes itself on this tension of mind, 
this restless anxiety which it takes for infalli- 
ble signs of a superior capacity. Thus Saint 
Francis de Sales was wont to say : **Our self- 
love is a great braggart, that wishes to under- 
take everything and accomplishes nothing. ' ' 

* ''It appears to me that you are over eager 
and anxious in the pursuit of perfection. . . . 
Now I tell you truthfully, as it is said in the 
Book of Kings, ^ that God is not in the great 
and strong wind, nor in the earthquake, nor 
in the fire, but in the gentle movement of an 
almost imperceptible breeze .... Anxiety and 
agitation contribute nothing towards success. 
The desire of success is good, but only if it be 

1 III Kings, C. XIX. 



Interior Peace. 115 

not accompanied by solicitude. I expressly 
forbid you to give way to inquietude, for it is 
the mother of all imperfections .... Peace is 
necessary in all things and everywhere. If 
any trouble come to us, either of an interior 
or exterior nature, we should receive it peace- 
fully : if joy be ours, it should be received 
peacefully : have we to flee from evil, we 
should do it peacefully, otherwise we may 
fall in our flight and thus give our enemy a 
chance to kill us. Is there a good work to be 
done ? we must do it peacefully, or else we 
shall commit many faults by our hastiness : 
and even as regards penance, — that too must 
be done peacefully : Behold^ said the prophet, 
in peace is my hitterness most hitter. ^ 



1 £cce in pace est amaritiido mea aviarissima. (Isciias.) 



XV. 

SADNESS. 

I rejoiced at the things that 
were said to me: we shall go 
into the house of the Lord. . . . 
Sing joyfully to God, all the 
earth : serve ye the Lord with 
gladness. . . . Why art thou sad, 
O my soul, and why dost thou 
trouble me? 
(Psalms CXXI., XCIX., XLII.) 

And God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes. 

(Apoc. C. XXI., V. 4.) 

1. Sadness, says Saint Francis de Sales, is 
the worst thing in the world, sin alone 
excepted. 

2. It is a dangerous error to seek recollec- 
tion in sadness : it is the spirit of God that 
produces recollection ; sadness is the work of 
the spirit of darkness. 

3. Do not forget the rule given by Saint 

Francis de Sales for the discernment of spirits : 

any thought that troubles and disquiets us 

cannot come from the God of peace, who 

makes his dwelling-place only in peaceful 

souls. 

(116) 



Sadness. 117 

* *'Yes, my daughter, I now tell you in 
writing what I before said to you in person, 
always be as happy as you can in well-doing, 
for it gives a double value to good works to be 
well done and to be done cheerfully. And 
when I say, rejoice in well-doing, I do not 
mean that if you happen to commit some 
fault you should on that account abandon 
yourself to sadness. For God's sake, no ; foi 
that would be to add defect to defect. But I 
mean that you should persevere in the wish 
to do well, that you return to it the moment 
you realize you have deviated from it, and 
that by means of this fidelity you live happily 
in the Lord .... May God be ever in our heart, 
my daughter .... Live joyfully and be gener- 
ous, for this is the will of God, whom we love 
and to whose service we are consecrated." — 
Saint Francis de Sales. * {Imitation^ B. III., 
Chap. XLVII.) 

4. It is wrong to deny one's self all diver- 
sion. The mind becomes fatigued and de- 
pressed by remaining always concentrated in 
itself and thus more easily falls a prey to sad- 
ness. Saint Thomas says explicitly that one 
may incur sin by refusing all innocent amuse- 
ment. Kvery excess, no matter what its 



118 Light and Peace. 

nature, is contrary to order and consequently to 
virtue. 

5. Recreations and amusements are to the 
life of the soul what seasoning is to our cor- 
poral food. Food that is too highly seasoned 
quickly becomes injurious and sometimes 
fatal in its effects ; that which is not seasoned 
at all soon becomes unendurable because of 
its insipidity and unpalatableness. 

6. As to the amount of diversion it is right 
to take, no absolute measure can be given : 
the rule is that each person should have as 
much as is necessary for him. This quantity 
varies according to the bent of the mind, the 
nature of the habitual occupations, and the 
greater or less predisposition to sadness one 
observes in his disposition. 

7. When you find your heart growing sad, 
divert yourself without a moment's delay ; 
make a visit, enter into conversation with 
those around you, read some amusing book, 
take a walk, sing, do something, it matters 
not what, provided you close the door of your 
heart against this terrible enemy. As the sound 
of a trumpet gives the signal for a combat, so 
sad thoughts apprise the devil that a favor- 
able moment has come for him to attack us. 



XVI. 

LIBERTY OF SPIRIT. 

Now the Lord is a spirit : 
and where the spirit of the 
Lord is, there is liberty. 
(St. Paul, II. Cor., c. III., v. 17.) 

For you have not received 
the spirit of bondage again in 
fear ; but ye have received the 
spirit of adoption of sons, 
whereby we cry : Abba, Father. 
(St.Paul,Ronians,c.VIII.,v.l5.) 

Love God and do what you 
will. (Saint Augustine.) 

I. Christian liberty of spirit, so earnestly 
recommended by the saints, consists in not 
becoming the slave of anything, even though 
good, unless it be of God's will. Thus our 
purest inclinations, our holiest habits, our 
wisest rules of conduct, should yield without 
murmur or complaint to every manifestation 
of this divine will, in order that they may 
never become for us obstacles or impediments 
to good or the occasion of trouble and dis- 
quietude. By this means only can we per- 

(119) 



120 Light and Peace. 

form all our actions witli cheerful confidence 
and devout courage. 

* *'I leave you the spirit of liberty; not 
that liberty which hinders obedience, for 
such is the liberty of the flesh, but that which 
excludes scruples and constraint .... We ask 
of God above all things that his name be hal- 
lowed, that His kingdom come, that His will 
be done on earth as it is in heaven. All this 
implies the spirit of liberty; for provided 
God's name be sanctified, that His divine 
Majesty reign in you, that His will be done, 
the spirit desires nothing more." ^ {Imitation^ 
B. HI., Chap. XXVI.) * 

2. St. Francis de Sales, speaking on this 
important subject, says : **He who possesses 
the spirit of liberty will on no account allow his 
affections to be mastered even by his spiritual 
exercises, and in this way he avoids feeling 
any regret if they are interfered with by sick- 
ness or accident. I do not say that he does 
not love his devotions but that he is not 
attached to them." 

3. A soul that is attached to meditation, if 
interrupted, will show chagrin and impatience: 
a soul that has true liberty will take the inter- 

1 Saint Francis de Sales, 



Liberty of Spirit. 121 

ruption in good part and show a gracious 
countenance to the person who was the cause 
of it. For it is all one to it whether it serve 
God by meditating or by bearing with its 
neighbor. Both duties are God's will, but 
just at this time patience with others is the 
more essential. 

4. The fruits of this holy liberty of spirit 
are prompt and tranquil submission and gen- 
erous confidence. Saint Francis de Sales 
relates that Saint Ignatius ate flesh meat one 
day in Holy Week simply because his physi- 
cian thought it expedient for him to do so on 
account of a slight illness. A spirit of con- 
straint would have made him allow the doctor 
to spend three days in persuading him, he 
adds, and would then very probably have 
refused to yield. I cite this example for the 
benefit of timid souls and not for those who 
seek to elude an obligation by unwarranted 
dispensations. 

* This matter is of such importance and a 
just medium so difficult to follow in practice, 
that it seems useful to transcribe the following 
passage from Saint Francis de Sales in its 
entirety, with the rules and examples it con- 
tains, in order that the proper occasions for 



122 Light and Peace. 

the exercise of this virtue and its limitations 
may be well understood. 

''A heart possessed of this spirit of liberty 
is not attached to consolations, but receives 
afflictions with all the sweetness that is possi- 
ble to human nature. I do not say that it 
does not love and desire consolations, but that 
its affections are not wedded to them .... It 
seldom loses its joy, for no privation saddens 
a heart that is not set upon any one thing. I 
do not say it never loses it, but if it does so it 
quickly regains it. 

The effects of this virtue are sweetness of 
temper, gentleness, and forbearance towards 
everything that is not sin or occasion of sin, 
forming a disposition gently susceptible to the 
influences of charity and of every other virtue. 

The occasions for exercising this holy free- 
dom are found in all those things that happen 
contrary to our natural inclinations; for one 
whose affections are not engaged in his own 
will does not lose patience when his desires 
are thwarted. 

There are two vices opposed to this liberty 
of spirit, — instability and constraint, or dissi- 
pation and servility. The former is a certain 
excess of freedom which causes us to change 



Liberty of Spirit. 123 

our devout exercises or state of life without 
reason and without knowing if it be God's will. 
On the slightest pretext practices, plans and 
rules are altered and for every trivial obstacle 
our laudable customs are abandoned. In this 
way the heart is dissipated and spent and 
becomes like an orchard open on all sides, the 
fruit whereof is not for the owner but for the 
passers-by. Constraint or servility is a certain 
lack of liberty owing to which the mind is 
overwhelmed with vexation or anger when we 
cannot carry out our designs, even though we 
might be doing something better. For exam- 
ple : I resolve to make a meditation every 
morning. Now if I have the spirit of insta- 
bility or dissipation I am apt to defer it until 
evening for the most insignificant reason, — 
because I was kept awake by the barking of a 
dog, or because I have a letter to write, 
although it be not at all pressing. If on the 
contrary I have the spirit of constraint or 
servility I will not give up my meditation 
even though a sick person has great need of 
my aid just then, or if I have an important 
and urgent dispatch to send which should not 
be deferred ; and so on. 

It remains for me to give you some examples 



124 Light and Peace. 

of true liberty of spirit which will make you 
understand it better than I can explain it. 
But, before doing so, it is well that I should 
say there are two rules which it is necessary 
to observe in order not to make any mistake 
on the subject. 

The first is that a person must never aban- 
don his pious practices and the common rules 
of virtue unless it is plainly evident that God 
wills that he do so. Now this will is mani- 
fested in two ways, — through necessity and 
through charity. I desire to preach this L/cnt 
in some little corner of my diocese ; however, 
if I get sick or break my leg I need not give 
way to regret or inquietude because I cannot 
do as I intended, for it is evident that it is the 
will of God that I serve Him by suffering and 
not by preaching. Or, even if I am not ill 
or crippled, but an occasion presents itself of 
going to some other place which if I do not 
avail myself of the people there may become 
Huguenots, the will of God is sufficiently 
manifest to make me amiably change my 
plans. The second rule is that when it is 
necessary to make use of this liberty of spirit 
from motives of charity, care should be taken 
that it is done without scandal or injustice. 



Liberty of Spirit. 125 

For instance : I mav know that I should be 
more useful in some distant place not within 
my own diocese : I should have no freedom o\ 
choice in this matter for my obligations are 
here and I should give scandal and do an in- 
justice by abandoning my charge. 

Thus it is a false idea of the spirit of liberty 
that would induce married women to keep 
aloof from their husbands without legitimate 
reason under pretext of devotion and charity. . . . 
This spirit rightly understood never interferes 
with the duties of one's vocation nor preju- 
dices them in any way. On the contrary, it 
makes every one contented in his state of life, 
as each should know it is God's will that he 
remain in it. 

Saint Charles Borromeo was one of the 
most austere, exact and determined of men; 
bread was his only food, water his only drink ; 
he was so strict, that during the twenty-four 
years he was an Archbishop he went into his 
garden but twice, and visited his brothers 
only on two occasions and then because they 
were ill. Yet this austere priest when dining 
with his Swiss neighbors, which he often did 
in order to move them to amend their lives, 
did not hesitate to join them in drinking toasts 



126 Light and Peace. 

and healths on every occasion and in doing so 
to take more than was necessary to quench 
his thirst. Here is true liberty of spirit 
exemplified in the most mortified man of his 
time. An unstable spirit would have gone 
too far, a spirit of constraint would have 
thought it was committing a mortal sin, a 
spirit of liberty would act in this way from a 
motive of charity. 

Saint Spiridion, a bishop of olden times, 
once gave shelter to a pilgrim who was almost 
dying of hunger. It was the season of Lent 
and in a place where nothing was to be had 
but salt meat. This Spiridion ordered to be 
cooked and then gave it to the pilgrim. See- 
ing that the latter, notwithstanding his great 
need, hesitated to eat it, the Saint, although 
he did not require it, ate some first in order to 
remove the poor man's scruples. That was a 
true spirit of liberty born of charity." — Saint 
Francis de Sales. * 

5. Again, it is this Christian spirit of free- 
dom that excludes fear and uneasiness in 
regard to all those things which God has not 
permitted us to know. It gives us a sweet 
and tender confidence as to the pardon of our 



Liberty of Spirit. 127 

past sins, the present condition of our souls 
and our eternal destiny. It reminds us con- 
tinually that althougli we have deserved hell, 
our divine Lord has merited heaven for us, 
and that it would be doing a great injury to 
His goodness not to hope for pardon for the 
past, assistance of divine grace for the present, 
and salvation after death. Finally, it teaches 
us to drown our remorse for sin in the ocean 
of the divine mercy. 

6. I earnestly exhort you never to make 
indiscreet vows in the hope of thus increasing 
the merit of your ordinary works. One can 
attain the same end by many ways that 
are easier and less dangerous. Those who 
are guilty of this imprudence often run the 
risk of breaking their vows and of thus 
sinning gravely. And if they avoid this 
misfortune it is only at the expense of their 
peace of soul, sacrificed to a craven and 
unquiet servitude which is totally incom- 
patible with the tranquillity and confidence 
required in the great work of our spiritual 
perfection. 

7. Many pious persons are too prone to 
advise obligations of this kind. If they do 



128 LigM and Peace. 

so to you, iiumbly excuse yourself by saying 
that you do not possess the extraordinary 
virtue requisite in order to fulfil them with- 
out disquietude. Saint Francis de Sales dis- 
approved of all the particular vows made by 
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal and declared 
them null. I have almost invariably found 
persons bound by such solemn obligations 
restless and agitated, and have frequently seen 
them exposed to the gravest falls. 

8. Do not allow yourself to be misled by 
the example of some of the saints who made 
vows. Rarely is the desire to imitate certain 
extraordinary practices of theirs an inspira- 
tion of divine grace : rather is it a temptation 
from the devil inciting us to pride and temerity. 
Saint Francis de Sales exclaimed: ^'Give me 
the spirit that animated Saint Bernard and I 
shall do what Saint Bernard did.'^ Let us 
apply ourselves, I repeat, to the imitation of 
those simple and solid virtues by which the 
saints attained sanctity, and be content to 
admire those supernatural acts that suppose it 
already acquired. 

9. To bind one's self by arbitrary vows 
without compromising salvation, three things 



Liberty of Spirit. 129 

are necessary: ist. supernatural inspiration 
urging one to make them ; 2d. extraordinary 
virtue so as never to violate them ; 3d. un- 
alterable tranquillity in order to preserve 
peace of soul in keeping them. 



XVII. 

CHRISTIAN PERFECTION. 

Conduct me, O Lord, in Thy 
way, and I will walk in Thy 
truth. (Psalm LXXXV.) 

Except the Lord build the 
house, they labor in vain who 
build it. (Psalm CXXVI.) 

I. A Christian is not obliged to be perfect, 
but to tend continually towards perfection; 
that is to say, he must labor unceasingly and 
with all his strength to increase in virtue. 
To make no attempt to advance is to go back. 

* You see it is a question not of succeeding 
but of laboring earnestly and sincerely. Suc- 
cess does not depend upon us. God grants 
that or refuses it or defers it according to what 
He knows is best for us. 

''Let us do three things, my dear daughter, 
says Saint Francis de Sales : first, have a pure 
intention to look in all things to the honor 
and glory of God ; second, do the little we can 
towards this end, according to the advice of 
our spiritual father ; third, leave the care of 

(130) 



Christian Perfection. 131 

all the rest to God. Why should he torment 
himself who has God for the object of his in- 
tentions and does all that he can? why should 
he be anxious? what has he to fear? God is 
not terrible for those whom He loves ; He is 
satisfied with little for He knows well that we 
have not much to give." 

....''Allow yourself to be governed by 
God; do not think so much of yourself; make 
a general and universal resolution to serve 
God in the best manner you are able and do 
not waste time in examining and sifting so 
minutely to find out what that may be. This 
is simply an impertinence due to the condition 
of your acute and precise mind which wishes 
to tyrannize over your will and to control it 
by fraud and subtlety .... You know that in 
general God wishes us to serve Him by loving 
Him above all things and our neighbor as 
ourselves for love of Him; and in particular, 
to fulfil the duties of our state of life ; that is all. 
But it must be done in good faith, without de- 
ceit or subterfuge, and in the ordinary way of 
this world, which is not the home of perfec- 
tion ; humanly, too, and according to the 
limitations of time; to do it in a divine and 
angelic manner and according to eternity 



132 Light and Peace. 

being reserved for a future life. Do not 
therefore be so anxious to know whether 
or not you have attained perfection. This 
should never be ; for were we the most 
perfect creatures on earth we ought not to 
dwell upon or glory in it but always consider 
ourselves imperfect. Our self-examination 
must never be for the purpose of discovering 
if we are imperfect, for this we should never 
doubt. Hence it follows that we must not be 
surprised at seeing ourselves imperfect, since 
we can never be otherwise in this life; nor on 
that account give way to despondency, for 
there is no remedy for it. But, yes; we can 
correct our faults gently and gradually, for 
that is the reason they are left in us. We 
shall be inexcusable if we do not try to amend 
them, but quite excusable if we are not entirely 
successful in doing so, for it is not the same 
with imperfections as with sins." — Saint 
Francis de Sales. * 

2 . Now the means to be employed in labor- 
ing for perfection and in making progress in 
virtue do not consist in multiplying prayers, 
fasts and other religious practices. Some 
good religious who had fasted three times a 
week during an entire year, thought that in 



Christian Perfection. 133 

order to satisfy the obligation of advancing 
more and more in virtue they ought to fast 
four times a week the following year. They 
consulted Saint Francis de Sales on the sub- 
ject. He laughingly answered them : ''If you 
fast four times a week this year so as to ad- 
vance in perfection, you will be obliged for 
the same reason to fast five times the next 
year, then six, then seven times ; and the 
number of your fasts being always the guage 
of the degree of perfection you shall have 
attained, it will be necessary for you, under 
pain of advancing no more, thereafter to fast 
twice a day, then thrice, then four times, and 
so on.'' What Saint Francis de Sales said of 
fasting is just as applicable to all other devout 
practices. 

3. Instead, then, of continually adding to 
your religious exercises, study to perfect your- 
self in the practice of those you already per- 
form, doing them with more love and peace 
of soul, and with greater purity of intention. 
Should it happen that you are unable to per- 
form all your usual devotions conveniently, 
omit a portion of them so that the remainder 
may be done with greater tranquillity. The 
spirit of perfection, says Saint Bernard, does 



134 Light and Peace. 

not consist in doing great things, bnt in doing 
common and ordinary things perfectly. Com" 
munia facerej sed non commimiter. ^ 

* Most people when they wish to reform, 
pay much more attention to filling their life 
with certain difficult and extraordinary actions, 
than to purifying their intention and opposing 
their natural inclinations in the ordinary 
duties of their state. In this they often 
deceive themselves, for it would be much 
better to make less change in the actions and 
more in the dispositions of the soul which 
prompt them. When one is already leading 
a virtuous and well regulated life it is of far 
greater consequence, in order to become truly 
spiritual, to change the interior than the ex- 
terior. God is not satisfied with the motions 
of the lips, the posture of the body, nor with 
external ceremonies : what he demands is a 
will no longer divided between Him and any 
creature ; a will perfectly docile .... that 
wishes unreservedly whatever He wishes and 
never under any pretext wishes aught that 
He does not vnsh. 

This will, perfectly simple and entirely 
devoted to God, you should bear with you 

^ See P. Rodriguez, S. J., Christian Perfectioity C. I. 



Christian Perfection. 135 

into all the circumstances of your life, and 
everywhere that divine Providence leads 
you .... Even mere amusements may be trans- 
formed into good works, if you enter into 
them only through a kindly motive and to 
conform to the order of God. Happy indeed 
the heart of her for whom God opens this 
way of holy simplicity! She walks therein 
like a little child holding its mother's hand 
and allowing her to lead it without any con- 
cern as to whither it is going. Content to be 
free, she is ready to speak or to be silent ; when 
she cannot say edifying things she says com- 
mon-place things with an equally good grace ; 
she amuses herself by making what Saint 
Francis de Sales calls joy ens etes, playful little 
jests, with which she diverts others as well as 
herself. You will tell me perhaps that you 
would prefer to be occupied with something 
more serious and solid. But God would not pre- 
fer it for you, seeing that He chooses what you 
would not choose, and you know His taste is 
better than yours : you would find more con- 
solation in solid things for which He has 
given you a relish, and it is this consolation of 
which He wishes to deprive you, it is this relish 
which He wishes to mortify in you, although 



136 Liglit and Peace. 

it may be good and salutary. The very vir- 
tues, as they are practised by us, need to be 
purified by the contradictions that God makes 
them suffer in order to detach them the better 
from all self will. When piety is founded on 
the fundamental principle of God's holy will, 
without consulting our own taste, or tempera- 
ment or the sallies of an excessive zeal, oh! 
how simple, sweet, amiable, discreet and 
reliable it is in all its movements ! A pious 
person lives much as others do, quite unaf- 
fectedly and without apparent austerity, in a 
sociable and genial way; but with a constant 
subjection to every duty, an unrelenting renun- 
ciation of everything that does not enter into 
God's designs in her regard, and, finally, with 
a clear view of God to whom she sacrifices all 
the irregular inclinations of nature. This 
indeed is the adoration in spirit and in truth 
desired by Jesus Christ, our Lord, and His 
eternal Father. Without it all the rest is but 
a religion of ceremonial, and rather the 
shadow than the reality of Christianity." — 
Fenelon. * 

4. Apply yourself in a particular manner 
to become perfect in the fulfilment of the 
duties of your state of life ; for on this all per- 



Christian Perfection. 137 

fection and sanctity are grounded. When 
God created the world He commanded the 
plants to produce fruit, but each one according 
to its kind : juxta genus suum. ^ In like man- 
ner our souls are all obliged to produce fruits 
of holiness, but each according to its kind ; 
that is to say, according to the position in 
which God has placed us. Elias in the desert 
and David on the throne had not to become 
holy by a like process ; and Joshua amidst the 
tumult of arms would have sought in vain to 
sanctify himself by the same means as Samuel 
in the peaceful retreat of the Temple. This 
instruction is addressed to those who being 
placed in the world would wish to practise 
there the virtues of the cloister, or whilst 
residing in palaces would attempt to lead the 
life of the solitaries of the desert. They bear 
fruits which are excellent in themselves, no 
doubt, but not according to their kind, juxta 
genus suum^ and hence they do not fulfil the 
will of God. 

5. Perfection has but one aim and it is the 
same for all, — to wit, the love of God ; but 
there are divers ways of attaining it. Among 
the saints themselves we find most striking 

1 Gen. I., 11. 



138 Light and Peace. 

differences. Saint Benedict was never seen to 
laugh, whereas Saint Francis de Sales laughed 
frequently and was always animated, bright 
and cheerful. Saint Hilarion considered it 
an act of sensuality to change his habit, 
whilst, on the other hand. Saint Catherine of 
Sienna was extremely particular about bodily 
cleanliness which she looked upon as a symbol 
of purity of soul. If you consult Saint Jerome 
you hear only of fear of the terrible judgments 
of God: read Saint Augustine and you will find 
only the language of confidence and love. 
The minds, dispositions and characters of men 
are as varied as their physiognomies ; grace 
perfects them little by little but does not 
change their nature. Hence in our endeavors 
to imitate the ways of such or such a saint for 
whom we feel a particular attraction, we should 
not condemn those of the others, but say with 
the Psalmist: Omnis spiriUts laudet JDominum.^ 
Consult your director as to whom and what 
may be most suitable for your imitation. 

6. Never be afraid that you are not follow- 
ing the way of perfection because you still 
have defects and commit many faults. This 
was true of the greatest saints, for Saint 

1 Psalm civ., 5. Let every spirit praise the Lord. 



Christian Perfection. 139 

Augustine declares that all of them could ex- 
claim with the Apostle Saint John: '^If we 
claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves 
and the truth is not in us." *iHe who came 
into the world with sin," says Saint Gregory 
the Great, ''cannot live there without sin." 

* "Act like the little child who, when it 
feels that its mother is holding it by the sleeve, 
runs about quite boldly and without being 
surprised at all the little falls it gets. Thus, 
as long as you find that God is holding you by 
the good will and the resolution He has given 
you to serve Him, go on bravely and do not 
be astonished that you stumble and fall occa- 
sionally. There is no need to be troubled 
about it, provided that at certain intervals 
you cast yourself into your Father's arms and 
embrace Him with the kiss of charity. Go 
on your way, then, cheerfully and heartily, 
doing the best you can ; and if it cannot 
always be cheerfully, let it at least be always 
courageously and faithfully." — Saint Francis 
de Sales. * 

7. But we must bear in mind the vast dif- 
ference that exists between the love of sin and 
sin committed inadvertently or from weak- 
ness. (S^e Confession y § 14.) Affection for 



140 Light and Peace. 

sin is the sole obstacle to perfection. Thus 
the most learned Fathers of the Church make 
a distinction between two kinds of tepidity: 
that which can be avoided and that which 
cannot be avoided. The former condition is 
that of a soul that retains an attachment for 
certain sins; the other, that of one falling into 
sin through frailty and from being taken 
unawares, which has been the case even with 
the greatest saints. 

8. Therefore in place of troubling yourself 
about these accidental falls, inseparable from 
human nature, make them turn to your spir- 
itual advantage by causing them to increase 
your humility. It often happens, says 
Saint Gregory the Great, that God allows 
great defects to remain in some souls at the 
beginning of their spiritual life that by means 
of them they may grow in self-knowledge and 
learn to place their entire confidence in Him. 
Saint Augustine tells us that God in his infinite 
wisdom has been better pleased to bring forth 
good out of evil than to hinder the evil itself. 
Thus when you learn to draw fruits of humil- 
ity from your faults, you correspond to the 
sublime designs of God's unspeakable pro- 
vidence. 



Christian Perfection. 141 

9. Should you happen to fear that you are 
not walking in the true way of perfection, 
consult your director and place implicit reli- 
ance upon the answer he gives you. Who is 
the saint that has not had to suffer because of 
a like doubt? But they were all reassured by 
the consideration of God's infinite goodness 
and by obedience to their spiritual father. 

* '^Some persons, although conscious of a 
sincere desire to serve God, nevertheless are 
disposed to feel alarmed about their spiritual 
condition, at the remembrance of all they 
have heard and read in regard to false con- 
sciences, self -illusion and the deceptive secu- 
rity of those who are following a wrong path. 
There are two ways of forming a false con- 
science : first, by choosing among our duties 
those for which we feel most attraction and 
natural tendency, and then, in order to give 
ourselves up to them more than is necessary, 
to persuade ourselves we can neglect the 
others. Thus a person with a preference for 
exterior acts of religion will spend all day 
praying or attending sermons and offices of 
the Church and considers herself very devout, 
although she may have been neglecting 
her temporal duties. Another, being dif- 



142 Light and Peace. 

ferently disposed 5 will apply herself exclusively 
to the duties of her state of life, sacrificing to 
them without regret those of religion, quite 
convinced that one who is faithful in all the 
domestic relations, and gives to every one his 
due, cannot possibly be otherwise than pleas- 
ing to God. The second way of making a false 
conscience consists in giving the preference 
in our esteem and practice to those among the 
Christian virtues which find their analogies 
in our natural dispositions, for there is not one 
of the virtues that has not its correlative 
amongst the various qualities of the human 
character. Persons of a gentle and placid 
disposition will affect meekness, the practice of 
which will be very easy for them and require 
no effort; and imagining they exercise a chris- 
tian virtue when in reality they only follow a 
natural bent, they are liable to fall into a culp- 
able weakness. Those who, on the contrary, 
have an exact and rigid mind will esteem justice 
and order above all else, making small account 
of meekness and charity; and thus justifying 
themselves falsely by their natural tempera- 
ment, they follow the tendency of the flesh 
whilst believing they obey the spirit, and may 
easily become addicted to excessive severity. 



Christian Perfection. 143 

It is evident, therefore, that the first rule to 
be observed in order to avoid these dangerous 
illusions and to walk securely in the way of 
perfection, is to apply ourselves in a special 
manner to the practice of those duties for 
which we feel least innate attraction, and 
always to mistrust our natural virtues however 
good they may appear. Then there is one 
consideration that should serve to reassure all 
Christians who are in earnest about their sal- 
vation; whilst they act in good faith and deal 
frankly and sincerely with their confessor, it is 
impossible for them to become the victim of a 
false conscience. 

In the following passage Saint Francis de 
Sales recommends us to watch carefully over 
our natural tendencies and to substitute for 
them as much as possible the inspirations of 
grace, which he calls living according to the 
spirit: 

^'To live according to the spirit, my beloved 
daughter, is to think, speak and act according 
to the virtues that are of the spirit, and not 
according to the senses and feelings which are 
of the flesh. These latter we should make serve 
us, but we must hold them in subjection and 
not allow them to control us; whereas with 



144 Light and Peace. 

the spiritual virtues it is just the reverse; we 
should serve them and bring everj^thing else 
under subjection to them. . . . See, my daugh- 
ter, human nature wishes to have a share in 
everything that goes on, and loves itself so 
dearly that it considers nothing of any account 
unless it be mixed up in it. The spirit, on the 
contrary, attaches itself to God and often says 
that whatever is not God's is nothing to it ; 
and as through a motive of charity it takes 
part in things committed to it, so through 
humility and self-denial it willingly gives up 
all share in those which are denied it ... . I am 
diihdent and have no self-confidence, and 
therefore I wish to be allowed to live in a way 
congenial to this disposition ; any one can see 

that this is not according to the spirit But, 

although I am naturally timorous and retiring, 
I desire to try and overcome these traits of 
character and to fulfil all the requirements of 
the charge imposed upon me by obedience ; 
who does not see that this is to live according 
to the spirit? 

Hence, as I have said before, my dear 
daughter, to live according to the spirit is to 
have our actions, our words and our thoughts 
such as the spirit of God would require of us. 



Christian Perfection. 145 

When I say thouglits, I of course mean volun- 
tary thoughts. I am sad, says some one, con- 
sequently I shall not speak; magpies and par- 
rots do the same: I am sad, but as charity 
requires me to speak, I shall do so ; spiritual 
persons act thus : I am slighted and I get 
angry: so do peacocks and monkeys. I am 
slighted and I rejoice thereat: that is what the 
Apostles did." 

In fine, to live according to the spirit is to 
do in all circumstances and on all occasions 
whatever faith, hope and charity demand of 
us, without even waiting to consider if we 
are or are not influenced by our natural dispo- 
sition. (The Imitation of Christy B. III., 
Ch. LIV.) * 

lo. Generally speaking it is only after a 
long and painful struggle that one succeeds in 
climbing the mount of perfection. There are 
some statues, says Saint Francis de Sales, 
that it has cost the artist thirty years' labor 
to perfect. Now the perfecting of a soul is a 
much more difficult work. We must there- 
sore set about it with tranquillity, patience 
and confidence in God. We shall always 
obtain what we wish soon enough if we obtain 

it at the time God pleases to grant it. 
10 



PART THIRD. 

SOCIAL LIFE. 
XVIII. 

CHARITY. 

By this shall all men know 
that ye are my disciples, if ye 
have love one for another. 

(St. John, c. XIII., V. 35.) 

He who saith he is in the 
light, and hateth his brother, 
he is in darkness even until 
now. 
(St. John, :e:p. I., c. II., V. 9.) 

1. Our divine Lord has said that His dis- 
ciples should be known by their love one for 
another. This christian virtue of charity 
makes us love our neighbor in God, the 
creature for the sake of the Creator. Love of 
God, love of our neighbor, — these virtues are 
two branches springing from the same trunk 
and having but one and the same root. 

2. Assist your brethren in their needs 
whenever you can. However, you should 

(146) 



Charity. 147 

always be careful to consult the laws of pru- 
dence in this matter and to be guided by your 
means and position. Supply by a desire to 
do good for the material aid you are unable to 
give. 

3. When your neighbor offends you he 
does not cease on that account to be the creat- 
ure and the image of God ; therefore the chris- 
tian motive you have for loving him still 
exists. He is not, perhaps, worthy of pardon, 
but has not our Saviour Jesus Christ, who so 
often has forgiven you much more grievous 
offences, merited it for him? 

4. Observe, however, that we can scarcely 
avoid feeling some repugnance for those who 
have offended us, but to feel and to consent are 
two distinct and widely different things, as we 
have already said. When religion commands 
us to love our enemies, the commandment is 
addressed to the superior portion of the soul, 
the will, not to the inferior portion in which 
reside the carnal affections that follow the 
natural inclinations. In a word, when we 
speak of charity the question is not of that 
human friendship which we feel for those who 
are naturally pleasing to us, a sentiment where- 
in we seek merely our own satisfaction and 



148 Light and Peace. 

whicli therefore lias nothing in common with 
charity. 

* *' Charity makes us love God above all 
things; and our neighbor as ourselves with a 
love not sensual, not natural, not interested, 
but pure, strong and unwavering, and having 
its foundation in God .... A person is extremely 
sweet and agreeable and I love her tenderly: 
or, she loves me well and does much to oblige 
me, and on that account I love her in return. 
Who does not see that this affection is accord- 
ing to the senses and the flesh? For animals 
that have no soul but only a body and senses, 
love those who are good and gentle and kind 
to them. Then there is another person who 
is brusque and uncivil, but apart from this is 
really devout and even desirous of becoming 
gentler and more courteous : consequently, 
not for any gratification she affords me, or for 
any self-interested motive whatever, but solely 
for the good pleasure of God, I talk to her, 
aid her, love her. This is the virtue of charity 
indeed, for nature has no share in it." — 
Saint Francis de Sales. (Read St. Luke, C. 

VI., w. 3^-33-34-) 

The literal and exact fulfilment of the evan- 
gelical precept is often found impracticable. 



Charity. 149 

How, we say, is it possible to iiave for all 
men indiscriminately that extreme sensibility 
we feel for everything that touches us indi- 
vidually, that constant solicitude for oui 
spiritual or temporal interests, that delicacy 
of feeling that we reserve for ourselves and 
for certain objects specially dear to us? — 
And yet it is literally au pied de la lettrCj 
that our Lord's precept should be observed. 
What then is to be done? An answer will be 
found in the following passage from Fenelon, 
and we shall see that it is not a question of 
exaggerating the love of one's neighbor, but 
of moderating self-love, and thus making both 
the one and the other alike subordinate to the 
love of God: 

^'To love our neighbor as ourselves does not 
mean that we should have for him that intense 
feeling of affection that we have for ourselves, 
but simply that we wish for him, and from 
the motive of charity, what we wish for our- 
selves. Pure and genuine love, love having 
for its sole end the object beloved, should be 
reserved for God alone, and to bestow it else- 
where is a violation of a divine right." * 

5. But although it is forbidden us to show 
hatred or to entertain it voluntarily against the 



150 Light and Peace. 

wicked and those who have offended us, this 
is not meant to prevent us from defending 
ourselves or taking such precautions against 
them as prudence suggests. Christian charity 
obliges and disposes us to love our enemies 
and to be good to them when there is occa- 
sion to do so; but it should not carry us so far 
as to protect the wicked, nor leave us without 
defence against their aggressiveness . It allows 
us to be vigilant in guarding against their 
encroachments, and to take precautions 
against their machinations. 

6. Always be ready and willing to excuse 
the faults of your neighbor, and never put an 
unfavorable interpretation upon his actions. 
The same action, says Saint Francis de Sales, 
may be looked upon under many different 
aspects : a charitable person will ever suppose 
the best, an uncharitable one will just as cer- 
tainly choose the worst. 

* ''Do not weigh so carefully the sayings 
and doings of others, but let your thought of 
them be simple and good, kindly and affec- 
tionate. You should not exact of your neigh- 
bor greater perfection than of yourself, nor be 
surprised at the diversity of imperfections; 
for an imperfection is not more an imperfec- 



Charity. 151 

tion from the fact that it is extravagant and 
peculiar." * 

7. It is very difficult for a good christian 
to become really guilty of rash judgment, in 
the true sense of the word, — which is that, 
without just reasons or sufficient grounds he 
forms and pronounces in his own mind in a 
positive manner a condemnation of his neigh- 
bor. The grave sin of rash judgment is fre- 
quently confounded with suspicion or even 
simple distrust, which may be justifiable on 
much slighter grounds. 

8. Suspicion is permissible when it has 
for its aim measures of just prudence; charity 
forbids gratuitously malevolent thoughts, but 
not vigilance and precaution. 

9. Suspicion is not only permissible, but 
it is at times an important duty for those who 
are charged with the direction and guardian- 
ship of others. Thus it is a positive obliga- 
tion for a father in regard to his children, and 
for a master in regard to his servants, when- 
ever there is occasion to correct some vice they 
know exists, or to prevent some fault they 
have reasonable cause to fear. 

10. As to simple mistrust, which should 
not be confused with suspicion, it is only an 



152 Light and Peace. 

involuntary and purely passive condition, to 
which we may be more or less inclined by 
our natural disposition without our free-will 
being at all involved. Mistrust, suspicion, 
rash judgment are then three distinct and very 
different things, and we should be careful not 
to confound them. 






XIX. 

ZEAL. 

But if you have bitter zeal, 
and there be contentions in 
your heart, glory not, and be 
not liars against the truth : for 
this is not wisdom descending 
from above, but earthly, sen- 
sual, diabolical. 
(St. James, Cath. Kp., c. Ill, 

vv. 14 and 15.) 

For the anger of man worketh 
not the justice of God. 
(St. James,Cath. Ep.,c. I.,v. 20.) 

1 . Zeal for the salvation of souls is a sub- 
lime virtue, and yet how many errors and sins 
are every day committed in its name ! Evil 
is never done more effectually and with greater 
security, says Saint Francis de Sales, than 
when one does it believing he is working for 
the glory of God. 

2. The saints themselves can be mistaken 
in this delicate matter. We see a proof of 
this in the incident related of the Apostles 
Saint James and Saint John; for our I^ord 

(153) 



154 Light and Peace. 

reprimanded them for asking Him to cause 
fire from heaven to fall upon the Samaritans. -^ 

3. Acts of zeal are like coins the stamp 
upon which it is necessary to examine atten- 
tively, as there are more counterfeits than good 
ones. Zeal to be pure should be accompanied 
with very great humility, for it is of all virtues 
the one into which self-love most easily glides. 
When it does so, zeal is apt to become impru- 
dent, presumptuous, unjust, bitter. Let us 
consider these characteristics in detail, view- 
ing them, for the sake of greater clearness, 
in their practical bearings. 

4. In every home there grows some thorn, 
something, in other words, that needs correc- 
tion; for the best soil is seldom without its 
noxious weed. Imprudent zeal, by seeking 
awkwardly to pluck out the thorn, often suc- 
ceeds only in plunging it farther in, thus ren- 
dering the wound deeper and more painful. 
In such a case it is essential to act with reflec- 
tion and great prudence. There is a time to 
speak and a time to be silent, says the Holy 
Spirit. ^ Prudent zeal is silent when it reali- 
zes that to be so is less hurtful than to speak. 

1 Luke, IX., 54. 

2 Kcclesiastes III., 7. 



Zeal. 155 

5. Some persons are even presumptions 
enongh. in their mistaken zeal to meddle in 
the domestic affairs of strange families, blam- 
ing, counselling, attempting to reform with- 
out measure or discretion, thus causing an 
evil much greater than the one they wish 
to correct. Let us employ the activity of our 
zeal in our own reformation, says Saint Ber- 
nard, and pray humbly for that of others. It 
is great presumption on our part thus to 
assume the role of apostles when we are not 
as yet even good and faithful disciples. Not 
that you should be by any means indifferent 
to the salvation of souls : on the contrary you 
must wish it most ardently, but do not under- 
take to effect it except with great prudence, 
humility and diffidence in self. 

6. Again, there are pious persons whose 
zeal consists in wishing to make everybody 
adopt their particular practices of devotion. 
Such a one, if she have a special attraction for 
meditating on the Passion of our divine Lord 
or for visiting the Blessed Sacrament, would 
like to oblige every one, under pain of repro- 
bation, to pass long hours prostrate before the 
crucifix or the tabernacle. Another who is 
especially devoted to visiting the poor and the 



156 Light and Peace. 

sick and to the other works of corporal mercy, 
acknowledges no piety apart from these excel- 
lent practices. Now, this is not an enlight- 
ened zeal. Martha and Mary were sisters, 
says Saint Augustine, but they have not a like 
office : one acts, the other contemplates. If 
both had passed the day in contemplation, no 
one would have prepared a repast for their 
divine Master ; if both had been employed in 
this material work, there would have been no 
one to listen to His words and garner up His 
divine lessons. The same thing may be said 
of other good works. In choosing among 
them each person should follow the inspira- 
tions of God's grace, and these are very varied. 
The eye that sees but hears not, must neither 
envy nor blame the ear that hears but sees 
not. Omnis spiritus laudet Dominiim: let 
every spirit praise the Lord, says the royal 
prophet. ^ 

7. Bear well in mind that the zeal which 
would lead you to undertake works not in con- 
formity with your position, however good and 
useful they may be in themselves, is always a 
false one. This is especially true if such 
cause us interior trouble or annoyance; for 

1 Ps. Civ, 5. 



Zeal 157 

the holiest things are infallibly displeasing to 
God when they do not accord with the duties 
of our state of life. 

8. Saint Paul condemned in strong terms 
those Christians who showed a too exclusive 
preference for their spiritual masters ; some 
admitting as truth only what came from the 
mouth of Peter, others acknowledging none 
save Paul, and others again none but Apollo. 
What ! said he to them, is not Jesus Christ 
the same for all of you ! Is it then Paul who 
was crucified for you? Is it in his name you 
were baptized? ^ This culpable weakness is 
often reproduced in our day. Persons other- 
wise pious carry to excess the esteem and 
affection they have for their spiritual directors, 
exalt without measure their wisdom and holi- 
ness, and do not scruple to depreciate all 
others. God alone knows the true value of 
each human being, and we have not the scales 
of the sanctuary to weigh and compare the 
respective wisdom and sanctity of this and 
that person. If you have a good confessor, 
thank God and try to render his wisdom use- 
ful to you by your docility in allowing your- 
self to be guided ; but do not assume that no- 

2 St. Paul, I Cor. I., 13. 



158 LigM and Peace. 

body else has as good a one. To depreciate 
the merits of some in order to exalt those of 
others at their expense is a sort of slander, 
that ought to be all the more feared because 
it is generally so little recognized. 

9. **If your zeal is bitter," says Saint 
James, "it is not wisdom descending from on 
high, but earthly, sensual, diabolical. ' ' ^ These 
words of an Apostle should furnish matter of 
reflection for those persons who, whilst making 
profession of piety, are so prone to irritability, 
so harsh and rude in their manners and lan- 
guage, that they might be taken for angels in 
church and for demons elsewhere. 

ID. The value and utility of zeal are in 
proportion to its tolerance and amiability. 
True zeal is the offspring of charity: it should, 
then, resemble its mother and show itself like 
to her in all things. "Charity," says Saint 
Paul, "is patient, is kind, is not ambitious 
and seeketh not her own." ^ 

* "You should not only be devout and love 
devotion, but you ought to make your piety 
useful, agreeable and charming to everybody. 
The sick will like your spirituality if they are 

1 S. James, Cath. Kp. III., 14-15. 

2 S. Paul, I Cor. XIII., 4-5. 



Zeal. 159 

lovingly consoled by it; your family, if they 
find that it makes you more thoughtful of 
their welfare, gentler in every day affairs, 
more amiable in reproving, and so on ; your 
husband, if he sees that in proportion as your 
devotion increases you become more cordial 
and tender in your affection for him ; your 
relations and friends, if they find you more 
forbearing, and more ready to comply with 
their wishes, should these not be contrary to 
God's will. Briefly, you must try as far as 
possible to make your devotion attractive to 
others; that is true zeal." — Saint Francis de 
Sales. * 

1 1 . Never allow your zeal to make you over 
eager to correct others, says the same Saint; and 
when you must do it remember that the most 
important thing to consider is the choice of 
the moment. A caution deferred can be given 
another time : one given inopportunely is not 
only fruitless, but moreover paralyses before- 
hand all the good that might have subsequently 
been done. 

12. Be zealous, therefore, ardently zealous 
for the salvation of your neighbor, and to fur- 
ther it make use of whatever means God has 
placed in your power; but do not exceed 



160 Light and Peace. 

these limits nor disquiet yourself about the 
good you are unable to do, for God can ac- 
complisli it through others. In conclusion, 
zeal, according to the teachings of the Fathers 
of the Church, should always have truth for 
its foundation, indulgence for its companion, 
mildness for its guide, prudence for its coun- 
sellor and director. 

* ''I must look upon whatever presents it- 
self each day to be done, in the order of Divine 
Providence, as the work God wishes me to do, 
and apply myself to it in a manner worthy of 
Him, that is with exactness and tranquillity. 
I shall neglect nothing, be anxious about noth- 
ing ; as it is dangerous either to do God's work 
negligently or to appropriate it to one's self 
through self-love and false zeal. When our 
actions are prompted by our own inclinations, 
we do them badly, and are pretentious, rest- 
less, and anxious to succeed. The glory of 
God is the pretext that hides the illusion. 
Self-love disguised as zeal grieves and frets if 
it cannot succeed. O my God ! give me the 
grace to be faithful in action, indifferent to 
success. My part is to will what Thou wiliest 
and to keep myself recollected in Thee amidst 
all my occupations : Thine it is to give to my 



Zeal. 



161 



feeble efforts such fruit as shall please Thee, 
none if Thou so wishest." — Fenelon. * 



11 



MEEKNESS. 

Blessed are the meek for 
they shall possess the land. 
(S. Matth., c. v., V. 4.) 

Learn of me because I am 
meek. 
(St. Matthew, c. XI., v. 29.) 

1. Our Lord offers us in His Divine Person 
a model of all the virtues. Meekness, how- 
ever, is the one that He seems to have wished 
more particularly to propose for our imitation 
since He said : '* Learn of Me for I am meek 
and humble of heart." 

2. Try, therefore, to acquire and always 
preserve in your soul this christian virtue and 
to make all your exterior actions correspond 
with it. I do not say that you should never 
have the slightest feeling of irritation, as that 
would be to expect an impossibility; but you 
should be attentive to repress these movements 
and never yield to them voluntarily. It is 
natural for man to be often assailed by anger, 
says Saint Jerome, but it is peculiar to the 

(162) 



Meekness. 163 

Christian not to allow himself to be overcome 
by it. 

3. A Christian, says Saint Bernard, who 
has no one at hand who gives him occasion 
to suffer, should seek such a person eagerly 
and buy him at any price, that he may have 
opportunity to practice meekness and patience. 
If you* are not disposed to go to this expense, 
at least profit of whatever opportunities divine 
Providence has given you gratuitously, that 
you may accustom yourself to the exercise of 
these two inestimable virtues. 

4. An excellent rule to follow is to make 
a compact with your tongue such as Saint 
Francis de Sales did with his, namely, that 
the tongue remain silent whenever the feel- 
ings are irritated. Otherwise you will begin 
to speak with the sincere resolution to keep 
within the bounds of moderation and prudence, 
but you will never succeed in so doing, because 
the bridle once loosened you will invariably 
be carried farther than you wished. Repri- 
mand from an angry man can do no good. 
Reproof is a moral remedy: how w^ould it be 
possible for you to select and administer this 
remedy with discernment and prudence, when 
you yourself are ill and stand in need of both 



164 Light and Peace. 

medicine and physician? Wait therefore until 
your soul is at peace, and when you have been 
restored to calmness you can speak advanta- 
geously. Even when it is your positive duty 
to administer a rebuke, defer it if possible 
until free from excitement, remembering that 
to have a salutary effect both he who gives it 
and he who receives it must be calm. With- 
out this precaution the remedy will only 
aggravate the disease. 

5. When obliged to reprove the fault of 
another, never fail to pray that God will speak 
to the person's heart whilst your words are 
sounding in his ears. 

6. Observe, however, with Saint Gregory 
the Great and Saint Thomas, that if those it is 
your duty to correct abuse your mildness and 
considerateness, you are then justified in re- 
pressing their boldness with vigor and firm- 
ness. *' Speak to the fool," says the Holy 
Spirit, *'the language that his folly renders 
necessary, that he may not continue wise in 
his own eyes."^ I repeat it: reproof is a 
remedy, and a remedy must be chosen and 
proportioned according to the nature and 
gravity of the evil. 

1 Proverbs, XXVI., 5. i 



XXI. 

CONVERSATION. 

Neither do men light a can- 
dle and put it under a bushel, 
but upon a candlestick, that it 
may give light to all who are 
in a house. 

Let your light so shine be- 
fore men that they may see 
your good works, and glorify 
your Father who is in heaven. 
(St. Matthew, c. V., vv. 15-16.) 

Contend not in words, for it 
is to no profit, but to the sub- 
version of the hearers. 
(St. Paul, II Tim., c. II., v. 14.) 

I. Conversation should be marked by a 
gentle and devout pleasantness, and your man- 
ner when engaged in it, ought to be equable, 
composed and gracious. Mildness and cheer- 
fulness make devotion and those who practice 
it attractive to others. The holy abbot Saint 
Anthony, notwithstanding the extraordinary 
austerities of his penitential life, always 
showed such a smiling countenance that no 
one could look at him without pleasure. 

(165) 



166 LigM and Peace. 

2. We should be neither too talkative nor 
too silent, — it is as necessary to avoid one 
extreme as the other. By speaking too much 
we expose ourselves to a thousand dangers, 
so well known that they need not be men- 
tioned in detail : by not speaking enough we 
are apt to be a restraint upon others, as it 
makes it seem as though we did not relish 
their conversation, or wished to impress them 
with our superiority. 

* *'Take great care not to be too critical of 
conversations in which the rules of devotion 
are not very exactly observed. In all such 
matters it is necessary that charity should 
govern and enlighten us in order to make us 
accede to the wishes of our neighbor in what- 
ever is not in any way contrary to the com- 
mandments of God." — Saint Francis de 
Sales. * 

3. Do not conclude from this that it is 
necessary to count your words, as it were, so 
as to keep your conversation within the proper 
limits. This would be as puerile a scruple as 
counting one's steps when walking. A holy 
spirit of liberty should dominate our conversa- 
tions and serve to instil into them a gentle 
and moderate gaiety. 



Conversation, 167 

4. If you hear some evil spoken of your 
neighbor do not immediately become alarmed, 
as the matter may be true and quite public 
without your having been aware of it. Should 
you be quite certain that there is calumny or 
slander in the report, either because the evil 
told was false or exaggerated or because it was 
not publicly known, then, according to the 
place, the circumstances and your relations 
towards those present, say with moderation 
what appears most fitting to justify or excuse 
your neighbor. Or you may try to turn the 
conversation into other channels, or simply be 
content to show your disapprobation by an 
expressive silence. Remember, for the peace 
of your conscience, that one does not share in 
the sin of slander unless he give some mark 
of approbation or encouragement to the person 
who is guilty of it. 

5. Do not imitate those who are scrupulous 
enough to imagine that charity obliges them 
to undertake the defence of every evil men- 
tioned in their presence and to become the self- 
appointed advocates of whoever it may be that 
has deserved censure. That which is really 
wrong cannot be justified, and no one should 
attempt the fruitless task : and as to the 



168 Light and Peace. 

guilty, those who may do harm either through 
the scandal of their example or the wicked- 
ness of their doctrines, it is right that they 
should be shunned and openly denounced. 
*'To cry out wolf, wolf," says Saint Francis 
de Sales, *4s kindness to the sheep." 

6. The regard we owe our neighbor does 
not bind us to a politeness that might be con- 
strued as an approval or encouragement of 
his vicious habits. Hence if it happen that 
you hear an equivocal jest, a witticism 
slurring at religion or morals, or anything 
else that really offends against propriety, be 
careful not to give, through cowardice and in 
spite of your conscience, any mark of appro- 
bation, were it only by one of those half smiles 
that are often accorded unwillingly and after- 
wards regretted. Flattery, even in the eyes 
of the world, is one of the most debasing of 
falsehoods. Not even in the presence of the 
greatest earthly dignitaries, will an honest, 
upright man sanction with his mouth that 
which he condemns in his heart. He who 
sacrifices to vice the rights of truth not only 
acts unlike a christian, but renders himself 
unworthy the name of man. 

7. In small social gatherings try to make 



Conversation. 169 

yourself agreeable to everybody present and 
to show to each some little mark of attention, 
if you can do so without affectation. This 
may be done either by directly addressing the 
person or by making a remark that you know 
will give him occasion to speak of his own 
accord, — draw him out, as the saying is. It 
was by the charm and urbanity of his conver- 
sation that Saint Francis de Sales prepared 
the way for the conversion of numbers of 
heretics and sinners, and by imitating him 
you will contribute towards making piety in 
the world more attractive. In regard to priests 
you should always testify your respect for the 
sacerdotal dignity quite independently of the 
individual. 

8. Disputes, sarcasm, bitter language, and 
intolerance for dissenting opinions, are the 
scourges of conversation. 

9. Although this adage comes to us from 
a pagan philosopher, we might profitably bear 
it always in mind : ' *In conversation we should 
show deference to our superiors, affability to 
our equals, and benevolence to our inferiors." 

10. Generally speaking, it is wrong for 
those whom God does not call to abandon the 
world, to seclude themselves entirely and to 



170 Liglit and Peace. 

shun all society suited to their position in life. 
God, who is the source of all virtue, is like- 
wise the author of human society. Let the 
wicked hide themselves if they will, their 
absence is no loss to the world; but good peo- 
ple make themselves useful merely by being 
seen. It is well, moreover, the world should 
know that in order to practice the teachings 
of the Gospel it is not necessary to bury 
one's self in the desert ; and that those 
who live for the Creator can likewise live 
with the creatures whom He has made accord- 
ing to His own image and likeness. Well, 
again, to show that a devout life is neither 
sad nor austere, but simple, sweet and easy; 
that far from being for those in the world an 
impediment to social relations, it facilitates, 
perfects and sanctifies such ; that the disciples 
of Jesus Christ can, without becoming world- 
lings, live in the world; and that, in fine, the 
Gospel is the sovereign code of perfection 
for persons in society as well as for those who 
have renounced the world. 

* Fenelon, who perhaps had even greater 
occasion than Saint Francis de Sales to teach 
men of the world how to lead a Christian life 
in society, wrote as follows to a person at court : 



Conversation. Ill 

''You ought not to feel worried, it seems to 
me, in regard to those diversions in whicli 
you cannot avoid taking part. I know there 
are those who think it necessary that one 
should lament about everything, and restrain 
himself continually by trying to excite disgust 
for the amusements in which he must partici- 
pate. As for me, I acknowledge that I cannot 
reconcile myself to this severity. I prefer 
something more simple and I believe that 
God, too, likes it better. When amusements 
are innocent in themselves and we enter into 
them to conform to the customs of the state of 
life in which Providence has placed us, then 
I believe they are perfectly lawful. It is 
enough to keep within the bounds of modera- 
tion and to remember God's presence. A dry, 
reserved manner, conduct not thoroughly in- 
genuous and obliging, only serve to give a 
false idea of piety to men of the world who 
are already too much prejudiced against it, 
believing that a spiritual life cannot be other- 
wise than gloomy and morose." * 

II. If all confessors agreed in instilling 
these maxims, which are as important as they 
are true, many persons who now keep them- 
selves in absolute seclusion and live in a sad 



172 Light and Peace. 

and dreary solitude would remain in society 
to the edification of their neighbor and the 
great advantage of religion. The world would 
thus be disabused of its unjust prejudices 
against a devout life and those who have em- 
braced it. 

12. Never remain idle except during the 
time you have allotted to rest or recreation. 
Idleness begets lassitude, disposes to evil 
speaking and gives occasion to the most 
dangerous temptations. 



XXII. 

DRESS. 

Women also in decent ap- 
parel, adorning themselves 
with modesty and sobriety. 
(St. Paul, I. Tim., c. II., v. 9.) 

1. Clothing is worn for a threefold object: 
to observe the laws of propriety, to protect 
onr bodies from the inclemency of the weather, 
and, finally, to adorn them, as Saint Paul says, 
with modesty and sobriety. This third end 
is, as you see, not less legitimate than the other 
two, provided you are careful to make it 
accord with them by confining it within pro- 
per limits and not permitting it to be the only 
one to which you attach any importance, so 
that neither health nor propriety be sacrificed 
to personal appearance. 

2. External ornamentation should corre- 
spond with each one's condition in life. A 
just proportion in this matter, says Saint 
Thomas, is an offshoot of the virtues of upright- 
ness and sincerity, for there is a sort of un- 
truthfulness in appearing in garments that 

(173) 



174 Light and Peace, 

are calculated to give a wrong impression as 
to the position in which God has placed us in 
this world. 

3. Be equally careful, then, to avoid over- 
nicety and carelessness in respect to matters 
of toilet. Excessive nicety sins against 
moderation and christian simplicity; negli- 
gence, against the order that should govern 
certain externals in human society. This order 
requires that each one's material life, and 
accordingly his attire which is a part of it, be 
suitable to his rank and condition; that Esther 
be clad as a queen, Judith as a woman of 
wealth and position. Agar as a bond-woman. 

5. I shall not speak of immodest dress, for 
these instructions being intended for pious 
persons or for those who are endeavoring to 
become such, it would seem unnecessary. 
Nevertheless, as some false and pernicious 
ideas on this subject prevail in the world and 
lead into error souls desirous to do right, 
here are some fundamental principles that 
can serve you as a rule and save you from 
similar mistakes. 

5. A generally admitted custom can and 
even should be followed in all indifferent 
matters; but no custom, however universal it 



Dress. 175 

may be, can ever have the power to change 
the nature and essence of things or render 
allowable that which is in itself indecent and 
immodest. Were it otherwise, many sins 
could be justified by the sanction they receive 
in fashionable society. Remember, there- 
fore, that the sin of others can never in 
the sight of God authorize yours, and that 
where it is the fashion to sin it is likewise the 
fashion to go to hell. Hence it rests with 
yourself whether you prefer to be saved with 
the few or to be damned with the many. 



XXIII. 

HUMAN RESPECT. 

I will pay my vows to the 
Lord before all his people. . . . 
I/O, I will not restrain my lips. . . 
I have not concealed thy mercy 
and thy truth from a great 
council. 
(Psalms CXV.and XXXIX.) 

That which you hear in the 
ear, preach ye upon the house- 
tops. . . Whosoever shall con- 
fess me before men, I will also 
confess him before my Father 
who is in heaven. 
(St. Matthew, c. X., w. 27-32.) 

1. Charity towards your neighbor, toler- 
ance for his opinions, indulgence for his de- 
fects, compassion for his errors, yes ; but no 
cowardly and guilty concessions to human 
respect. Never allow fear of the ridicule 
or contempt of men to make you blush 
for your faith. 

2. We are not even forbidden to call one 
human weakness to the assistance of another 
that is contrary to it: men do not like to con- 

(176) 



Human Bespect. 177 

tradict themselves, and they dread to be con- 
sidered fickle. Well, then, in order that no 
person may be ignorant of the fact that you are a 
christian, once for all boldly confess your faith 
and your firm resolve to practise it, and let it 
be known that in all your actions your sole 
desire is to seek the glory of God and the 
good of your neighbor. Let this profession 
be made upon occasion in a gentle and modest 
manner, but firmly and positively ; and you 
will find that subsequently it will be much 
easier for you to continue what you have thus 
courageously begun. (Read Chapters I. and 
II., IVth Part of the Introduction to a 
Devout Life.) 



12 



XXIV. 

RESOLUTIONS. 

Long-standing custom will 
make resistance, but by a better 
habit shall it be subdued. 

{Imitation, B. III., c. XII.) 

To him who shall overcome, 
I will grant to sit with me in 
my throne, as I also have 
overcome. 

(Apocalypse, c. III., v. 21.) 

1 . We should not undertake to perfect our- 
selves upon all points at once ; resolutions as 
to details ought to be made and carried out 
one by one, directing them first against our 
predominant passion. 

2. By a predominant passion we mean 
the source of that sin to which we oftenest 
yield and from which spring the greater number 
of our faults. 

3. In order to attack it successfully it is 
essential to make use of strategy. It must be 
approached little by little, besieged with great 
caution as if it were the stronghold of an 

(178) 



Besolutions. 179 

enemy, and the outposts taken one after 
another. 

4. For example, if your ruling passion be 
anger, simply propose to yourself in the be- 
ginning never to speak when you feel irritated. 
Renew this resolution two or three times dur- 
ing the day and ask God's pardon for every 
time you have failed against it. 

5. When the results of this first resolution 
shall have become a habit, so that you no 
longer have any diflficulty in keeping it, you 
can take a step forward. Propose, for in- 
stance, to repress promptly every thought 
capable of agitating you, or of arousing in- 
terior anger ; afterwards you can adopt the 
practice of meeting without annoyance persons 
who are naturally repugnant to you ; then of 
being able to treat with especial kindness 
those of whom you have reason to complain. 
Finally, you will learn to see in all things, 
even in those most painful to nature, the will 
of God offering you opportunities to acquire 
merit ; and in those who cause you suffering, 
only the instruments of this same merciful 
providence. You will then no longer think of 
repulsing or bewailing them, but will bless and 
thank your divine Saviour for having chosen 



180 Light and Peace. 

you to bear witli Him the burden of His cross, 
and for deigning to hold to your lips the pre- 
cious chalice of His passion. 

6. Some saints recommend us to make an 
act of hope or love or to perform some act of 
mortification when we discover that we have 
failed to keep our resolutions. This practice 
is good, but if you adopt it do not consider it 
of obligation nor bind yourself so strictly to it 
as to suppose you have committed a sin when 
you neglect it. 

7. It is by this progressive method that 
you can at length succeed in entirely over- 
coming your passions, and will be able to 
acquire the virtues you lack. Always begin 
with what is easiest. Choose at first external 
acts over which the will has greater control, 
and in time you can advance from these, little 
by little, to the most interior and difficult 
details of the spiritual life. 

8. Resolutions of too general a character, 
such as, for example, to be always moderate 
in speech, always patient, chaste, peaceable 
and the like, ordinarily do not amount to 
much and sometimes to nothing at all. 

9. To undertake little at a time, and to pur- 
sue this little with perseverance until one has 



Resolutions. 181 

by degrees brought it to perfection, is a com- 
mon rule of human prudence. The saints 
particularly recommend us to apply it to the 
subject of our resolutions. 



XXV. 

CONCLUSION. 

But continue thou in the 
things which thou hast learned 
and which have been commit- 
ted to thee ; knowing of whom 
thou hast learned them. 
(St. Paul, II Tim., c. III., V. 14.) 

1. The writer of these instructions makes 
no pretension to have derived them from his 
own wisdom. The material was furnished 
him by the greatest saints and the most emi- 
nent doctors of the Church. You can there- 
fore believe in them with great confidence, 
follow them without fear and adopt them as a 
safe and reliable guide in your spiritual life. 

2. If you try to regulate your practice by 
making personal and indiscriminate applica- 
tion of everything you find in sermons and 
books you will never be at rest. One draws 
you to the rights the other to the lefty says 
Saint Francis de Sales : doctrine is one, but 
its applications are many, and they vary 

(182) 



Conclusion. 183 

according to time, place and person. Besides, 
those who speak to a hardened multitude, 
from whom they cannot get even a little 
without exacting a great deal, insist vehe- 
mently upon the subject with which they 
wish to impress their hearers and for the time 
being appear to forget everything else. If 
they preach on mortification of the senses, 
fasting, or any other penitential work, they 
fail to explain the proper manner of practising 
it, the limits that should not usually be ex- 
ceeded and the circumstances under which 
we can and should refrain from it. This is 
due to the fact that the cowardly and the luke- 
warm, whom it is more necessary to excite 
than to restrain, will take from these instruc- 
tions only just what is suitable for them. 
Now as these form the majority, it is for them 
above all that it is necessary to speak. 

3. It would then be better for you individ- 
ually, without lessening your respect and 
esteem for books of devotion and for preachers 
animated by the spirit of God, to confine 
yourself as far as practice is concerned to the 
advice of your director and to the teachings 
of the saints as presented in this little volume. 

4. Recall what has been already said, that 



184 Liglit and Peace. 

Saint Francis de Sales counsels you to select 
your spiritual guide from among ten thousand, 
and to allow yourself subsequently to be 
entirely directed by him as though he were 
an angel come down from heaven to conduct 
you there. 

5. Without this rule of firm and confident 
obedience, books and sermons and all that is 
said and written for the multitude, will become 
for you a source of fatiguing inquietude, and 
of doubts and fears, owing to the fact that 
you will try to assimilate things which were 
not intended for you. 

6. Remember, moreover, the pleasant say- 
ing of Saint Philip de Neri, — namely, that he 
had a special predilection for those books the 
authors of which had a name beginning with 
the letter S. ; that is to say, the works of the 
saints, because he supposed them to be more 
illumined by heavenly wisdom. 

Now, in observing these instructions you 
will have for guide and director not the poor 
sinner who has compiled them for the glory 
of God and the good of souls, but Saint 
Augustine, Saint Thomas, Saint Philip de 
Neri and especially Saint Francis de Sales, 
in whom the Church recognizes and admires 



Conclusion. 185 

such exalted sanctity, profound wisdom, and 
rare experience in the direction of souls. 
These are the three eminent qualities requisite 
to constitute a great doctor in the Catholic 
Church, and to form the safest and the most 
enlightened guide for those who wish to be 
his disciples. 



ADDITIONS. 

FINAL ADVICE IN REGARD TO HOLY COMMUNION. 

A cause of frequent error and trouble, par- 
ticularly in regard to Holy Communion, is 
that feelings are confused with acts of the 
will. The faculty of willing is the only one 
we possess as our own, the only one we 
can use freely and at all times. Hence it 
follows that it is by the will alone that we 
can in reality acquire merit or commit sin. 
The natural virtues are gratuitous gifts of God. 
The world is right in esteeming them for they 
come from Him, but it errs when it esteems 
them exclusively for they do not of them- 
selves give us any title to heaven. God has 
placed them at the disposal of our will as 
means to an end, and we can make a good or 
bad use of them just as we can of all God's 
other gifts. We may be deprived of these 
natural virtues and live by the will alone, 
spiritually dry and devoid of sentiment, and 
yet in a state of intimate union with God. 

(186) 



Additions. 187 

This explanation is intended to reassure 
such persons as are disposed to feel anxious 
when they find nothing in their hearts to cor- 
respond with the effusions of sensible love 
with which books of devotion abound in the 
preparation for Holy Communion. These 
usually make the mistake of taking for granted 
the invariable existence of sentiment, and of 
addressing it exclusively. How many souls 
do we not see who in consequence grow 
alarmed about their condition, believing they 
are devoid of grace notwithstanding their firm 
will to shun sin and to please God ! They 
should, however, not give way to anxiety, nor 
exhaust themselves by vain efforts to excite in 
their hearts a sensibility that God has not 
given them. When He has granted us this 
gift we owe Him homage for it as for all 
others; but God only requires that each of His 
creatures should render an account of what he 
has received, and free-will is the one thing 
that has been accorded indiscriminately to all 
men. Thus we find Saint Francis de Sales, 
who possessed in such a high degree sensible 
love of God and all the natural virtues, making 
this positive declaration : '^The greatest proof 
we can have in this life that we are in the 



188 Light and Peace. 

grace of God, is not sensible love of Him, but 
the firm resolution never to consent to any sin 
great or small." 

Pious persons can make use of the following 
prayers with profit when they are habitually 
or accidentally in the condition described 
above. They will then see how the will 
alone, without the aid of feeling, can produce 
acts of all the christian virtues. 

Act of Confidence. 

/ will go unto the altar of 
God, (Ps. XUI.) 

It is obedience, O my God ! that leads me 
to Thy Holy Table : the tender words by 
which Thou hast invited us would not have 
sufficed to draw me, for in the troubled state 
of my soul I cannot be sure they are addressed 
to me. Misery and infirmity are claims for ad- 
mission to Thy Feast, but nothing can dispense 
from the nuptial garment. Therefore when 
I turn my eyes on myself, after having raised 
them to Thee, I doubt, I hesitate, I tremble ; 
for if I go from Thee I flee from life, and if I 
approach unworthily, to my other sins I add 
the crime of sacrilege. ^ But Thy merciful 

1 Imitation y B. IV., c. VI.: **For if I do not appeal to 
Thee, I fly from life ; and if I intrude myself unworthily 
I incur Thy displeasure.'* 



Additions. 189 

wisdom, O my God, whilst foreseeing our 
every need, has foreseen all our weaknesses 
and has prepared helps for us against both 
presumption and distrust. For if Thou hast 
not willed that, certain of Thy grace, we should 
ever advance with the assurance of the Phari- 
see and say like him : I come to the altar of 
the Lord because I know I am just in His 
eyes : neither hast Thou permitted that a 
sacrament of love should become for us a tor- 
ture and an unavoidable snare. I therefore 
obey, O my God, and in the darkness that 
envelops me I wish to follow implicitly the 
guidance of him whom Thou hast appointed 
to lead me to Thee. I shall approach the 
Holy Table without wishing for any other 
warrant than the words spoken by my con- 
fessor, or rather by Thee : You may receive 
Holy Communion. I accept, O my God! — 
be it a well merited punishment or a salutary 
trial, — this privation of light and sensible 
devotion, this coldness and distraction, which 
accompany me even into Thy presence when 
all the faculties of my soul should be absorbed 
and confounded in sentiments of adoration 
and of love. Faith, hope and charity seem 
to be extinct in my heart, but I know that 



loo Liglit and Peace. 

Thou never withdrawest these virtues when 
we do not voluntarily renounce them. 

Act of Faith. 

Notwithstanding, then, the doubts that 
cross my mind, I tvish to believe^ O my God ! 
and I do believe all that Thy holy Church has 
taught me. I have not forgotten that brilliant 
light of Faith which Thou didst cause to 
illumine my soul in the days of mercy in order 
that the precious remembrance of it should 
serve me as support in the days of trial and 
temptation. 

Act of Hope. 

In spite of these vague fears that seem to 
extinguish hope within my soul, I know that 
although Thou art the mighty and strong 
God before whom the cherubim veil themselves 
with their wings, the just and all-seeing God 
who discovers blemishes in the purest souls, 
still Thou wishest to be in the most Holy 
Sacrament only the Victim whose Blood 
effaces the sins of the world ; the Good Shep- 
herd who hastens after the strayed sheep and 
carries it tenderly and unreproachfully back 
to the fold ; the divine Mediator who comes 



Additions. l9l 

not to judge hut to save. ^ All this I know, 

my God! and therefore I hope. 

Act of Love. 
Notwithstanding the coldness and insen- 
sibility that benumb my soul, I know that 

1 love Thee^ O my God! since my will prefers 
Thy service to all the joys of this world, since 
Thy grace is the sole good to which I aspire, 
and because I suffer so much by reason of my 
lack of sensible love for Thee. 

Act of Desire. 

No, I am not indifferent, Thou knowest, O 
my God ! that I am not indifferent to this 
Most Holy Sacrament which I approach un- 
moved by any sensible feeling : for Thou seest 
that although I find in Holy Communion 
neither relish nor consolation, I would yet 
make any sacrifice in order to receive it. 

Act of Contrition. 

I feel neither hatred nor horror of sins to 
which the world does not attach shame and 
contempt; I experience no sensible sorrow for 
the sins I have committed, but I know, O my 

^ S. John, c. XII., V. 47 : **For I came not to judge the 
world, but to save the world." 



192 Light and Peace. 

God ! that, with the assistance of Thy grace, 
my will denounces them, for I am resolved to 
commit them no more. I have taken this 
resolution because sin displeases Thee and 
because all that swerves from eternal order is 
abhorrent to Thy infinite sanctity. / believe^ 
tliefiy that I am contrite ^ O my God ! because I 
believe in Thy promises, and if Thou dost not 
always grant us the consolation of realizing 
our contrition, Thou wilt never refuse its justi- 
fying virtue to those who humbly implore it ; 
and this I do. 

No, my God, I shall not pray Thee to grant 
me sensible enjoyment, not even that of Thy 
spiritual gifts : what I implore of Thy grace is 
to keep my will ever turned towards Thee 
and never to permit it to fall or wander anew 
on the earth. 

Lord! into Thy hands I commend my spirit. 
(Read The Imitation^ Chapters IV., XIV., 
XV. of B. IV.; and Chapters XXV., XLVIII 
andlvllof B. III.) 



If you have an ardent desire for the sensible 
love of God, a desire that cannot but be pleas- 
ing to Him provided you are at the same time 



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